The Carthage College women's volleyball team (34-7, 7-0 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin), ranked ninth in the Nov. 8 American Volleyball Coaches Association NCAA Division III poll, saw its NCAA championship run end on Saturday afternoon, Nov. 19 with a 3-0 loss to No. 6 Christopher Newport University (38-4) in the semifinals of the NCAA Division III Women's Volleyball Championship at the Washington University Field House in St. Louis, Mo.  The Captains' winning set scores over the Lady Reds were 25-14, 25-22 and 25-11.
 
Carthage opened its first-ever appearance in the "elite eight" of the NCAA Division III Women's Volleyball Championship on Friday afternoon, Nov. 18 with a 3-2 win over No. 20 Springfield College (34-3) at the Washington University Field House in St. Louis, Mo.  Carthage's winning set scores over Springfield were 24-26, 25-18, 25-21, 19-25 and 15-6.
 
Also on Carthage's side of the bracket, No. 6 Christopher Newport University (37-4) defeated No. 18 the State University of New York-Cortland (42-2), 3-1, with winning scores of 20-26, 25-16, 25-10 and 25-18. 

On the other side of the bracket, No. 4 Eastern University (36-2) swept No. 11 the University of St. Thomas (Minn., 32-5), 3-0, with winning scores of 26-24, 25-18 and 25-19.  No. 5 Wittenberg University (35-3) swept No. 17 California Lutheran University (29-7), 3-0, in Friday's final quarterfinal match with scores of 25-17, 25-15 and 25-12).  Wittenberg (36-3) swept Eastern (36-3), 3-0, in Saturday's second semifinal match with winning scores of 25-21, 25-13 and 25-19.  Wittenberg (37-3) swept Christopher Newport (38-5), 3-0, in the Sunday, Nov. 20 title match with scores of 25-21, 25-21 and 28-26. Carthage's Cindy Cavanagh (Sr., Naperville, Ill./Aurora-Waubonsie Valley) was named to the all-tournament team.
 
Christopher Newport opened up an early, 9-5 lead in the first set.  Carthage battled back to tie the score at 14-14, and then the unthinkable happened.  The Captains scored 11 unanswered points to win the set by a 25-14 margin.  Lady Reds coach Leanne Ulmer called a timeout at 18-14, but Christopher Newport ran off the next seven points in a row.  The Captains scored the first four points of the second set to run the streak to 15-straight points.  Carthage trailed, 8-2, in the second set but came back to tie the contest, 14-14.  "I told our team at a timeout that we had to stop beating ourselves," said Carthage coach Leanne Ulmer.  "It's tough to win when you make that many unforced errors.  Christopher Newport is hard enough to beat without helping them."
 
The Lady Reds took their first lead of the second set at 18-17.  Following ties at 18-18, 19-19, and 20-20, Carthage took a 21-20 lead on a furious rally.  "That rally went on so long," said Ulmer, "we forgot who the server was."  The Captains knotted it up again at 21 all, but the Lady Reds scored next for a 22-21 lead.  There was another tie at 22-22, but Christopher Newport prevailed with the final three points and a 25-22 win.  Flash back to the regional final against Washington University (Mo.).  Now the Lady Reds had to do things the hard way and try to bounce back from a 2-0 deficit.
 
It didn't' happen this time.  Carthage fell behind again, 7-2, in the early going and then by nine, 15-6.  With a 16-8 lead, the Captains took off on a six-point streak to take a 14-point lead, 22-8, and went on to win by 14, 25-11.
 
The Lady Reds really struggled on the offensive end, hitting a negative .023 as a team.  Michelle Madeja (Sr., Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) led Carthage with 10 kills, while Cory Harris led Christopher Newport with 10 kills and a .323 attack percentage. 
 
"I didn't expect this," said Carthage coach Leanne Ulmer.  "We've been playing great.  The result was disappointing, but you have to give a lot of credit to Christopher Newport.  They didn't cut us any slack when we forced the errors.  They're a tremendous defensive team, and I knew we were going to have to play a tremendous match to beat them.  We didn't have our best game today, but I am super proud of this team. We've been able to pull ourselves out of things all year, and if we could have pulled out the second set, things might have been different.  When you get this far, you want to win it all, so nobody is happy about leaving."
 
"We came so close so many times over the past four years," said Michelle Madeja.  "We all have a passion for this game, and we really thought we had a chance to win this championship."  "It's been an awesome season," said Cindy Cavanagh (Sr., Naperville, Ill./Aurora-Waubonsie Valley).  "The ending was bittersweet, but it's been an amazing four years."