GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- For the third time in four years, Calvin is headed back to quarterfinal round of the NCAA tournament.
The top-ranked Knights did so in a familiar way, defeating Wittenberg in a five-set NCAA regional final Saturday night in front of more than 2,000 fans at Calvin’s Van Noord Arena. Calvin won the match by scores of 25-19, 25-22, 23-25, 24-26, 15-9.
Calvin will face the winner of a regional final between Williams and Massachusetts-Boston. The Williams/U-Mass-Boston match will be played on Sunday afternoon. Calvin’s quarterfinal match against its Massachusetts opponent will be played next Thursday at Hope’s DeVos Fieldhouse at a time yet to be announced.
Saturday night marked the fourth consecutive year that Calvin and Wittenberg have faced off in a regional final. It also marked the fifth time that two teams have done so overall as they also met in the 2005 NCAA regional final at Wittenberg with the Tigers winning that matchup in three sets. In 2010, Calvin won at Wittenberg in four sets and continued on to win the national title. In 2011, Wittenberg returned the favor, defeating Calvin in four sets in Grand Rapids, en route to the school’s first national title. A year ago, Calvin defeated Wittenberg in five sets.
Calvin was led by sophomore Maggie Kamp who tallied 21 kills and 13 digs while junior Ellie Diepersloot had 12 kills and a .417 attack percentage. Junior Emily Crowe had nine kills while senior Megan Rietema had 40 assists, 11 digs and nine kills to go with five block assists. Senior Kristen Zietse also had a team-high 19 digs. Freshman Laura Danhoff had three service aces and a match-high eight block assists.
