No matter which school you belong to or root for, one thing is for certain when it comes to winning this weekend's NJCAA Region IV Division III Women's Volleyball Tournament in Palatine, Illinois: it will not be easy. The four teams remaining have all been ranked in the NJCAA Division III Poll at some point during the season. That includes Madison College, which earned the region's #2 seed and a bye into the semifinals where they will open postseason play against third-seeded Harper College on Saturday, October 27 at noon. The other semifinal pits top-seeded Rock Valley College against fourth-seeded Joliet Junior College at 10:00 a.m., with the winners to meet in the championship match at 3:00 p.m.

Madison College and Harper College have been the class of Region IV for the past five years and have played some epic matches. This will be the seventh postseason meeting since the WolfPack joined the region in 2009, and the two programs have split the previous six. The Hawks defeated the 'Pack in the past two Region IV Championship matches, including a five-set thriller that came down to the final points in 2017. This year the two rivals split their regular season meetings, with each winning on their home floor. Ninth-ranked Harper, the two-time defending region champ and a two-time defending national final qualifier, has won nine of the last 11 meetings, while Madison owns a narrow 17-16 advantage in the all-time series. The WolfPack enter postseason play with a record of 16-11. Harper currently sits at 22-13.

On the other side of the bracket is North Central Community College Conference champion and fifth-ranked Rock Valley College. The Golden Eagles are 21-15 and swept both season series with Harper and Madison. The only team to have beaten RVC in league play is Joliet Junior College after the Wolves, who are 21-13, handed Rock Valley a five-set loss back on September 11. Plain and simple, the 2018 winner of the Region IV Tournament will have certainly earned their trip to the NJCAA National Tournament in Rochester, Minnesota, from November 8-10.

The WolfPack have been led by a pair of record-setting sophomores this fall. Outside hitter Paige Hostetler is second in the nation in total kills and third in kills per set. The Green Bay, Wisconsin, native broke single-season and career records for kills at Madison College. Setter Olivia Darkow is third in the nation in assists per set, and owns the single-season and career marks for service aces. Both have earned all-conference and all-region accolades, with Hostetler becoming the fifth player in program history to be named N4C Most Valuable Player.

Freshmen Tianna Sackett and Isabella Carrillo have contributed mightily to the offensive attack, with 3.06 and 2.06 kills per set, respectively. The frontline tandem has also formed Madison College's biggest defense with more than 70 combined blocks. In the back row, defensive specialist Maddie Scalissi leads a handful of players with more than 150 digs on the year.

Madison College enters the postseason looking to add to a program collection of four Region IV titles and subsequent national tournament appearances.



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