MADISON, WISC. - The third time was the charm for the Madison College women's volleyball team, who claimed the
Region 4 Division II Midwest District A Tournament championship on Sunday with a 3-0 sweep of #4-seeded Harper College. The win followed a Saturday sweep of #8-seeded Rock Valley College as the top-seeded WolfPack won the program's fifth Region 4 title, as well as its first in a decade and first in the three years since hosting the tournament's final two rounds inside
H. Douglas Redsten Gymnasium. Fourth year head coach
Mallory Stone was awarded the Region 4 Coach of the Year honor, while freshman
Allie Andrews broke the program's single-season assists record.
Semifinal: (1) Madison College 3, (8) Rock Valley College 0 (25-22, 25-23, 25-19)
Madison College trailed 17-11 in the opening set against the Golden Eagles before rallying with a 14-5 surge to win the set. Most of that run came after the WolfPack called timeout following back-to-back RVC points to make it 21-18, and the home team responded with seven straight points, which included a kill and two aces by freshman
Sam Schultz.
Rock Valley College (17-23) nearly flipped the script in the second set as they trailed 13-7 early, but recovered with a 7-1 burst to even the score at 14-14. However, the WolfPack used a Schultz kill to regain momentum and turned an 18-16 deficit into a three-point lead with five consecutive points. They played side out volleyball the rest of the set to take a two-sets-to-none lead. During the set, Andrews surpassed Hannah Grahn's mark of 1,031 assists in 2014 to become the new single-season assist record holder.
The Golden Eagles continued to put up a fight in the third, storming out to a 6-1 lead. First year outside hitter
Ella Vosberg ended the run with a kill, and Madison College went on to win 14 of the next 17 points to go up 15-9. Sophomore
Avery Agnew delivered a pair of aces during a ten-point service run that also included four kills from outside hitter
Makayla Dallas. The Pack maintained a comfortable lead the rest of the way until a RVC attack error sent them to the championship round.
Madison College finished with 34 kills and a .256 attack percentage, as well as eight aces, seven blocks, and 32 digs.
Dallas, a native of Valders, Wisconsin, led the charge with a dozen kills and a career-best .786 hitting efficiency. She also added one ace, one block, and four digs. Schultz was next with nine kills, followed by six from Vosberg.
Andrews tallied 30 assists to put the Darlington, Wisconsin, native at 1,050 for the season as she becomes just the fourth WolfPack player to reach 1,000 assists in a season and the tenth to do it for their career. In addition, she came through with
Agnew racked up ten digs, with Schultz adding nine and Webster seven. Agnew also came through with a team-leading four aces.
The Golden Eagles still own a 46-32-1 lead in the all-time series; however, the WolfPack lead 5-4 in postseason meetings.
Championship: (1) Madison College 3, (4) Harper College 0 (25-14, 25-22, 25-13)
The fourth meeting between Madison College and Harper College in a Region 4 Championship witnessed a pretty dominant performance by the tournament's top seed, who amassed 42 kills and a .344 attack percentage to secure the sweep and the hardware. The WolfPack also took advantage of 13 aces, marking the 23rd time this season they've posted ten or more. The match finished with the Pack totaling five blocks and 42 digs.
Down 2-0, Madison College followed a
Sam Schultz kill with two more from
Ella Vosberg and an ace by Schultz as part of a quick 5-0 burst to take control.
Makayla Dallas bookended a 4-0 surge midway through the first set with kills, and after the Hawks closed the gap to three points at 14-11, Schultz and Vosberg teamed up again for four quick points on two Vosberg kills and two Schultz aces for a 19-11 advantage. The set ended with another 4-0 run that saw back-to-back kills by sophomore
Kate Howe and a set point kill from Dallas.
A pair of early kills and aces by Harper College (33-14) had the Hawks on top early in the second set, but a 5-1 run capped by an Agnew ace evened the score at 7-7. The Hawks strung together another surge with six consecutive points for a 14-9 advantage midway through; however, the WolfPack had yet another answer with an 8-0 burst that featured two kills from Dallas, four hitting errors by Harper, and ended with another
Cora Webster ace to make it 20-17. The differential grew to 23-18 and after earning set point, the Hawks earned three straight points to force a Madison timeout. Schultz downed a kill on the ensuing play to end the set.
The third set belonged to the WolfPack, who raced to a 6-1 lead with two more aces by Agnew. Another 6-0 surge with back-to-back
Tricia Klum aces and two
Allie Andrews kills made it 12-4 before the Pack rolled to a 12-point win.
Vosberg, a Cuba City, Wisconsin, native, earned 12 kills and hit at a .579 clip. She leads the team with 412 kills on the season. Dallas and Schultz were next with nine kills each in the match. Schultz, who narrowly missed a double-double in Saturday's semifinal, did the same in the championship with nine digs. The Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, native, served up a team-best four aces
Andrews posted 30 assists, four kills, and seven digs. Agnew, a former Milton HS athlete, had 14 digs, five assists, and three aces. The freshman libero has 616 digs on the season, moving her into second in program history and within 14 of the single-season record of 630 set by Syndey Clarson in 2014.
Webster, a second year defensive specialist, tracked down six digs and had three aces. Her team-leading 76 aces also ranks second for a single season behind the 83 served up by Kendall Weisensel three years ago.
Madison College still trails the Hawks by a 21-20 margin all-time all-time and 4-3 in postseason matches; however, they're now even at 2-2 when a Region 4 championship is on the line.
Up Next:
Madison College (33-4) is headed to the
NJCAA Division II Women's Volleyball Championship in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, from November 19-22. The tournament seeds, matchups, and brackets will be released on Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. The WolfPack appeared in Division III version in 2009, 2013, 2014, and 2015, which featured a pair of back-to-back national championships in '13 and '14.
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