Not since the era of winning consecutive national championships in the last century have the Chaparrals created as much buzz as their efforts this past weekend in Rockford.
 
Coach Tolis Koskinaris' team, ranked No. 4 in the preseason NJCAA D3 poll, won all six of its matches, capped by defeating defending national champion and top-ranked Owens Community College 3-1 in its final tourney match Sunday afternoon.
 
The Chaps defeated three top six teams — the Owens victory, a 3-2 victory over No. 3 Central Lakes College and a 3-0 win over No. 6 Rochester C&TC.
 
The Chaps received standout performances from sophomore Chloey Myers, Alyssa Fountain and Olivia Witek on the attack.
 
"We survived a great opening weekend,'' Koskinaris said. "We played tight matches and a few were tight. Good teams find a way to win. It was a grind and we found our way through it.''
 
Myers totaled 81 kills in 22 sets for a .266 attack percentage. Fountain was right in line, firing off 69 kills in 22 sets (3.14 kills/set) and Witek totaled 60 kills (2.73 k/s) in 22 set and hit .357 (60 kills, 15 errors, 126 total attacks).
 
"Those three picked each other up,'' he said. All of them do a very nice job of picking up their game when one of them is down.''
 
Koskinaris said the Chaps' serving and serve-receive game much improved over a year ago and factored into the victories.
 
The Chaps are at Illinois Valley on Tuesday night before returning home Friday when they play host to the two-day Chaparral Invite.
 
On Friday, they No. 7 Finger Lakes CC and St. Cloud Technical College at 4 p.m. On Saturday, they play Genessee CC and close the weekend against No. 2 Minnesota State C&TC of Fergus Falls, Minn., at 2 p.m.
 
 "We have a difficult, competitive match Tuesday night on the road at Illinois Valley, and then wrap-up the week with our tournament that will test us from the get-go.''