LISLE, Ill. -- Elmhurst made short work of the Cougars, dispatching Concordia in a convincing three-set win.
Megan Reynolds and Sam Szarmach totaled 11 kills apiece to pace the Bluejays' offense in the victory. Reynolds added four blocks while hitting a team-best .611 for the contest. Szarmach finished the match hitting .500 while adding a pair of blocks. Kaitlyn Wilks added five kills and two blocks for the Bluejays. Lauren Lorenz totaled 14 assists and five aces, both team-highs. Hannah Nimrick finished with nine assists while Hannah Lessen totaled a team-leading seven digs. The Bluejays hit .394 as a team and committed just six errors in 71 attempts (34 kills).
Concordia (4-21) was led by Lisa Koller's seven kills. Jenna Boggs totaled 18 assists and eight digs for the Cougars in the loss.
No. 3 Cal Lutheran 3, La Verne 1
LA VERNE, Calif. -- They have been Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) champions for almost a week, but tonight, Cal Lutheran went undefeated at 16-0 against league opponents with a 3-1 (22-25, 25-19, 25-15, 25-23) triumph against La Verne 3-1.
Off the bench tonight to provide that balance were Jena Chavez and Caitlin Fransen who tallied 15 assists and seven kills on ten swings without an error for a .700 hitting percentage, respectively.
Nicki Tetherow led the squad with 19 digs and Allie Eason added 11 as the third player in double figures.
La Verne (8-23, 5-11 SCIAC) was led by Brittany Yaxley who recorded a match-high 26 kills. Tiffany Mancuso tallied 42 assists for the Leopards. Morgan Donohue had 12 digs and and Ashlyn Cross chipped in with 11.
No. 5 Elmhurst 3, DePauw 0
LISLE, Ill. -- Elmhurst won its 10th consecutive match with a three-set victory against DePauw, a regionally ranked squad in the Great Lakes Region.
Elmhurst built an early 12-4 lead in the opening set and quickly extended their advantage to 19-9 before closing out the Tigers 25-18. With the score knotted at 11-11 in the second set, the Bluejays used a 10-2 run to take a 21-13 lead before pulling away for the 25-18 win.
The Bluejays led by as many as four points in the third set at 16-12 but the Tigers answered back with an 8-2 run to build a 20-18 cushion. The Bluejays pulled even at 22-22 and then fought off a pair of set points from DePauw to even the score at 25-all. Back-to-back kills from Wilks and Marci Novak gave the Bluejays a 27-25 win in the third set and closed out the match in the process.
No. 6 Emory 3, Berry 1
No. 6 Emory 3, No. 15 Trinity (Texas) 2
ATLANTA -- Emory closed out a successful weekend with a pair of regional victories on Saturday at its National Invitational tournament. The Eagles opened with a 3-1 decision (25-11, 25-17, 24-26, 25-18) against Berry before coming away with a 3-2 verdict (17-25, 25-20, 25-18, 29-31, 15-12) against No. 15 Trinity. The two wins upped Emory's overall record to 28-3.
Emory hit .268 (57-17—149) against Berry while the Vikings countered with an effort of .120 (47-28—158). The Eagles finished with a 68-61 advantage in digs and a 9-0 margin in blocks. Emory had a trio of players record double figures in kills led by junior Kate Bowman who topped all players with 14 terminations, while registering a .323 (14-4-31) hitting percentage.
Emory and Trinity waged a slugfest that stretched almost two hours and thirty minutes. By the time the smoked had cleared, the teams had combined for 398 attack attempts, 156 kills and 175 digs. The Tigers enjoyed advantages in both hitting percentage (.298 vs. 281) and digs (88 vs. 87), but Emory found a way to come away with the win, thanks in part to a strong fifth-set that saw it post a .321 hitting percentage (11-2—28) compared to TU's .185 (8-3—27).
No. 8 Washington-St. Louis 3, Wisconsin Lutheran 0
ST. LOUIS -- Washington-St. Louis got off to a slow start in the opening set against Wisconsin Lutheran, playing to a 13-13 tie despite having just three kills on its first 13 attacks.
Washington U. hit .241 in the match, while limiting Wisconsin Lutheran to -.020 hitting. Nine different players recorded kills in the match for the Bears, led by Dupont’s 10 kills on 18 swings. She also had a career-high nine blocks. Sophomore Jackie Nelligan added six kills while hitting .667, and Byrne had five kills on 11 swings for a .455 attack percentage.
Sophomore Cassie Wang tallied 18 assists, five digs and two blocks, while sophomore Allison Zastrow added 10 assists, five digs and one block. Katagiri led the Bears defensively with 12 digs and also recorded three aces, and Marvi chipped in with six digs, a career-best three kills and two aces.
No. 8 Washington-St. Louis 3, Buffalo State 0
ST. LOUIS -- Washington-St. Louis hit .311 in the match, marking the seventh time the team has hit above .300 in a match this season. Dupont and Nelligan finished with 14 kills each to lead the Bears, while combining for a .625 attack percentage. Nelligan also finished with four block assists, while Dupont added two and Blood recorded a team-high five.
Byrne also had a big match, hitting .389 with eight kills, two aces and five digs. Wang recorded her eighth double-double of the season with a match-high 29 assists and 14 digs, while Zastrow added 13 assists. Katagiri equaled her career-high with 21 digs.
No. 9 Juniata 3, Trinity (Texas) 1
No. 9 Juniata 3, Cortland State 0
ATLANTA, Ga. -- Juniata came away from the final day of the Emory National Invite with wins against No. 15 Trinity (Tx.) 3-1 (13-25, 25-23, 25-23, 25-20) and Cortland State 3-0 (25-17, 26-24, 25-21). Senior Rachelle Wiegand and freshman Nakita Gearhart were named to the all-tournament team for their performances this weekend.
In the first match of the night, Wiegand posted a team-high 14 kills and a match-high 19 digs against the No. 15 team in the country. Sophomores Karley Christian and Bryce Arnold helped the Eagles rebound from a first set loss with 11 and 10 kills, respectively.
In the final bout of the regular season, Juniata took down the Red Dragons of Cortland State in consecutive sets for the team's 28th victory of the year. Gearhart finished the match with a match-high 18 kills from a .708 attack percentage.
The Red Dragons stretched the first lead of the third set out to 4-0 and continued to pull away, reaching a six-point lead at 19-13. After a kill from Arnold made it 19-14 Cortland, Young took over serving duties and Juniata went on a nine-point run, forcing two Cortland timeouts, and taking over the lead at 23-19. The Eagles closed out the match with back-to-back kills from Gearhart for the 3-0 sweep.
