Second-Ranked Volleyball Charges Past Bethany in NCAA Championships Opener

-- Story provided by Hope College --

With a herd of Bethany Bison charging early, the second-ranked Hope College volleyball team faced a few unsettling moments early in the opening round of the NCAA Division III Championships.

Once the Flying Dutch found their footing, they proved to be the ones on the move — to the next round.

Hope defeated Bethany College (W.Va.) in three sets on Thursday, winning 25-21, 25-10, 25-19 in front of a DeVos Fieldhouse crowd of 792.

The Flying Dutch (28-2) advanced to host No. 23-ranked University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point on Friday, Nov. 17, at 7 p.m. in a second-round match. At 4:30 p.m., Pacific Lutheran University (Wash.) will play No. 17 Transylvania University (Pa.).

Head coach Becky Schmidt said Bethany (22-8 overall and Presidents Athletic Conference co-champions) gave Hope "some fits" early.

"I want to give Bethany a ton of credit. They were a scrappy, feisty team [who] played with a lot of heart and a lot of passion," Schmidt said. "The way they were able to stay in system and run their middles, especially in the first part of the first set really kind of knocked us on our heels a little bit. I was impressed with the way we kind of responded to that. We fought back and were finally able to get a little bit better sense of our intention at the end of the first set. 

"That translated into some really good serving going into the second set. [We] put them into some difficult situations and made it easy for our defense. In the third set, I think our defense just exploded. We found our rhythm defensively and that translated into creating good opportunities offensively for us."

The Flying Dutch scored eight of the final 10 points of the first set, then recorded the first nine points of the second set.

Junior outside hitter Addie VanderWeide (Grand Rapids, Michigan / Grand Rapids Christian HS) spearheaded Hope's attack with 13 kills. The AVCA Region 7 and MIAA Player of the Year hit at a .345 clip.

Junior middle blocker Alison DeWeerd (Kentwood, Michigan / South Christian) also reached double figures with 11. The all-region and All-MIAA selection hit at a .500 clip.

Sophomore setter Lauren Lee (Plymouth, Michigan / Saline), an all-region and All-MIAA honoree, totaled 36 assists.  

Defensively, Hope earned a 59-47 edge in digs. Senior Olivia Fiebing (Traverse City, Michigan / Traverse City Central) and junior Samantha Seib (Elkhorn, Wisconsin / Catholic Central) led the Flying Dutch in digs with 14 and 10, respectively.

Bethany received a team-high six kills from middle blocker Riley Fenton.

With the win, Hope earns its third all-time meeting with Wisconsin-Stevens Point and the first in NCAA Championships play. The series is tied at 1-1.

Stevens Point (23-10) advanced with a come-from-behind 19-25, 8-25, 25-23, 25-20, 15-7 victory against Case Western Reserve University. Four Pioneers finished in double figures in kills.

Stevens Point-CWRU boxscore

In Friday's other games, Transylvania topped the University of Mount Union (Ohio) 25-16, 25-23, 20-25, 25-13 and Pacific Lutheran knocked off the region's second seed, Carnegie Mellon University, 25-21, 25-20, 25-18.

Calvin Women's Volleyball Season Comes to an End in NCAA Tournament

-- Story provided by Calvin University Athletics --

OSHKOSH, Wis. - The 12th-ranked Calvin University women's volleyball team saw its season come to an end with a 3-0 defeat to 18th-ranked Gustavus Adolphus College (GAC) by the scores of 25-22, 25-19 and 25-18 on Thursday in the opening round of the NCAA Division III Tournament. 

The Knights had the momentum early and took a 9-5 lead out of the gates, but Gustavus Adolphus (26-6) recovered with the help of eight kills from Lauren Klaith to take the opening set 25-22. Gabriella Kellogg (Belleville, Mich./Plymouth Christian Academy) led Calvin (22-8) with four kills in the set, while Aerin Baker (Saugatuck, Mich./Saugatuck) led the team with seven digs.

The Gusties opened the second set with a 6-0 run and held off a Calvin rally that cut the lead to 18-16 to take the second set 25-19. GAC took advantage of five serving errors by the Knights in the set, while Klaith continued to be difficult for the Knights to contain with six more kills in the set. 

Calvin pushed to force a fourth set, but the Gusties scored the final five points to take the third set 25-18 and win the match. 

Kellogg was the most consistent hitter for the Knights on the attack throughout the match, finishing with nine kills to lead the team. 

Baker added six kills along with her team-leading 17 digs, while Avery Ekkens (Portage, Mich./Kalamazoo Christian), Tryna Vander Zwaag (Hamilton, Mich./Holland Christian) and Aubrey Wrubel (Jenison, Mich./Jenison) also finished with at least 10 digs. 

The Knights' tournament appearance was the program's 19th straight. 

COACH'S COMMENT: "I want to congratulate Gustavus Adolphus on a well-played match," head coach Dr. Amber Warners said. "I just didn't think we played, overall, from our passing to our blocking to our serving to our setting, we just didn't play consistently. There were times we looked really good, but it's just been a struggle for us all year to be consistent throughout the match."