The Kansas City Kansas Community College Blue Devils may be in for a trap game when they come to town and put their No. 4 national ranking on the line against the Allen Red Devils Wednesday.

A preseason powder keg may explode Wednesday as the Allen Community College Red Devils volleyball team opens the regular season hosting fourth-ranked Kansas City Kansas Community College.

After weeks of success on the road at preseason tournaments in Illinois and most recently Iowa, the Red Devils hope to prove they deserve a chance at battling for a national title after officials snubbed them from last season?s tournament.

Over the weekend, the Red Devils went 4-0 at the Jimmy Johns Invitational while facing Spoon River, Southeastern Community College, Frontier Community College and John Wood Community College. They opened the tournament with a 3-1 victory over Spoon River Friday morning. Spoon River avoided a sweep with a 25-18 victory in the third set, but it was all Allen until that point and beyond as the Red Devils opened the match with a 25-11 victory, followed by a 25-21 victory and ended the morning 25-16 to advance.

Freshman outside hitter Maria Santana had a team-leading 13 kills, followed by freshman Lauren Brummet with 10. Freshman outside hitter Alissa Hadzic had three aces, followed by freshman outside hitter Baylee Belt with two.

Defensively, sophomore libero Audrey Peek had 19 digs and freshman setter Jaidyn Follis had 17. Sophomore Middle hitter Chloe Curl had two blocks.

The Red Devils? next two opponents took Allen to all five sets in a pair of marathon matches.

Southeastern and Allen traded set-for-set with Allen emerging victorious after forcing a game five with a 25-23 victory, then securing the match with a 15-8 victory in the final set.

The Red Devils later escaped a dogfight against Frontier Community College in similar fashion with a pair of victories, 25-20 and 15-10, in the fourth and fifth sets to take the match.

Expecting their luck to run out in their final appearance in Burlington, the opposite seemed the case. After opening the afternoon with a 25-20 loss, John Wood Community College needed extra sets to overcome Allen in the second set with a 27-25 win but ended the day on the wrong end of a 25-12 and 25-17 drubbing by the Red Devils.

Belt ended the day with a team-leading 13 kills, followed by freshman right-side hitter Kahena Di Grazia and Hadzic, who had nine each. Hadzic had a team-leading four aces, followed by Di Grazia and Peek with three each. Peek also had a team-leading 32 digs. Curls and Peek tied for the team lead in blocks with two each.

Article and Photo Credit: JImmy Potts