FORT WAYNE, Ind. - - The No. 11 Madonna captured the 2008 Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference Volleyball Tournament Championship on Saturday (Nov. 15) with a 3-1 win over No. 19 Indiana Tech inside the Schafer Center.
The Crusaders (35-4) earned the WHAC's automatic bid to the NAIA National Tournament. The appearance marks the 11th in program history for MU and the seventh straight for the Crusaders and head coach Jerry Abraham.
Just eight days after suffering a 3-1 loss at the hands of the Warriors (32-3), the Crusaders got out of the gate quickly, taking a 10-4 lead early in set one before seeing Tech climb back into the set and pull with in two at 15-13. A 10-3 run by MU behind three Whitney Fuelling (Milford, Mich.) kills and two each from Lubovj Tihomirova (Riga, Latvia) and Mary McGinnis (Fraser, Mich.) earned the Royal Blue and Gold the 25-16 set one win.
MU took set two in similar fashion, connecting at a .667 clip while going a perfect 13-for-13 in sideout opportunities, winning 25-12. After another Tihomirova termination gave Madonna a 12-7 lead, Inta Grinvalds (Portage, Mich.) stepped to the service line and while there saw her side reel off eight straight points, getting blocks from Fuelling and Tihomirova to push the lead out to 13 points at 20-7. Kills from Karie Altman (Taylor, Mich.) and Fuelling along with another from Tihomirova gave MU the 25-12 win and a 2-0 lead in the match.
Set three of the match was Tech's from the start as Madonna trailed for most of the set. After tying the set at 11-11, Tech went on a 14-9 run to close the set, taking advantage of six MU attack errors to win 25-19 to trail 2-1 in the match.
The fourth and final set of the day was the tightest of the contest with the two sides trading points throughout. MU's biggest lead came at 23-19 on a ball handling error charged to Tech. MU earned set and match point at 24-21 on another handling error by Tech but the Warriors tied the set with kills from Ashtyn Humerickhouse and Ashley Jenkins to go along with an ace. The two teams then battled and saw two more ties at 25-25 and 26-26 before MU earned its six match point of the day on a Humerickhouse error and an Ashley Hamilton error sealed the 28-26 MU win and a 3-1 match win for the Crusaders.
Tihomirova led all players with 23 kills while Fuelling and McGinnis had 11 each for Madonna. The Crusaders connected at a .325 clip for the match. Grinvalds handed out 48 assists while Brynn Kerr (Livonia, Mich.) and Amanda Koszela (Dearborn, Mich.) paced the passing game for MU with 20 and 15 digs respectively. Hamilton led Tech with 13 kills.
The NAIA will announce seeding and pairings for the National Tournament which gets underway next weekend on campus sites. The top-11 teams in the final Coaches' Poll (which also comes out Sunday) will earn a bye to the finals site in Sioux City, Iowa for play on Dec. 2-6.
POST MATCH QUOTES
On the environment at Tech and the match:
"We played so fast, so awesome, it was our best match of season. It was a great performance on the road. Our big hitters stepped up. The gym was packed, the band was playing, just a great atmosphere. It was one of great games in MU history. We had backs against wall, had 24-21 lead in game four, and they came back. They (Tech) ended up tying it and we didn't want them get to a fifth game and give them all the momentum.''
