The Carthage College women's volleyball team (31-8, 6-1 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin), ranked seventh in the final, regular-season American Volleyball Coaches Association NCAA Division III poll and the second-seeded team in the regional tournament, ended its season on Saturday night, Nov 13 with a 3-0 loss to No. 14 Wisconsin-Platteville (33-3) in the semifinals of the NCAA Division III Women's Volleyball Regional Championship at Carthage's Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis. Wisconsin-Platteville's winning set scores were 25-17, 25-17 and 25-16.
In the earlier semifinal contest on Saturday, No. 3 Washington University (Mo., 33-3) defeated Wartburg (24-16), 3-1, with winning set scores of 25-23, 22-25, 25-19 and 25-14. Washington (Mo., 34-3) swept Wisconsin-Platteville (33-4), 3-0, in the Sunday, Nov. 14 regional-championship match. The Bears' winning set scores in the title match were 25-16, 25-21 and 25-19.
Washington's Lauren Budde was named tournament “most valuable.” Teammates Kelly Pang and Meghan Byrne were named to the all-tournament team, along with Melissa Hillebrand and Briana Kaiser from Wisconsin-Platteville, Carthage's Lauren Dembkowski and Kamille Van Natta from Wartburg College. In the title match, Byrne collected a match-high 12 kills with a .478 attack percentage, while Budde had 11 kills with four block assists. Hillebrand and teammate Stephanie Kirchner topped the Pioneers with eight kills each.
The loss to Wisconsin-Platteville snapped a pair of Carthage streaks, including a 13-match winning streak and 25-match home winning streak that stretched back to Sept. 15, 2008. In the first set, Carthage fell behind 5-1 and 10-3 en route to a 25-17 loss. The second set was tied, 14-14, when Wisconsin-Platteville ran off four unanswered points to take an 18-14 lead. The Pioneers upped their advantage to 23-16 and won the second set by the same 25-17 margin. Another UW-Platteville spurt in the third set broke a 5-5 tie, as the Pioneers opened up an four-point lead, 9-5. Wisconsin-Platteville extended its lead to 16-8 and to 19-9 and went on to win by nine points, 25-16.
“Our goal is always to win the regional tournament,” said coach Leanne Ulmer, “so we were disappointed with not achieving that. I am very proud of the season we had and the growth the team showed.” Melanie Bailiff topped UW-Platteville with kills and a .226 attack percentage, while Briana Kaiser had nine kills and a .474 mark, along with five blocks (1 solo, 4 assisted). Carthage outside hitter Michelle Madeja (Jr., Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) had nine kills.
On Friday, Nov. 12,, in front of a boisterous, record-breaking home crowd, Carthage opened regional play with a 3-0 win over seventh-seeded and No. 22 Wisconsin-Oshkosh (24-14) in the quarterfinals. The Lady Reds' winning set scores over the Titans were 25-15, 25-15 and 25-11. The crowd of 1,200 set a Carthage women's volleyball attendance record, surpassing a mark of 900 set versus Carroll University in the 2007 regional-championship quarterfinals at the Carthage Physical Education Center, now Tarble Arena.
In the other quarterfinal matches, fifth-seeded Wartburg College (24-15) swept fourth-seeded and No. 16 Wisconsin-Whitewater (28-9), 3-0, with winning set scores of 25-17, 25-23 and 25-17; top-seeded and No. 3 Washington University (Mo., 32-3) swept eighth-seeded Beloit College (19-12), 3-0, with winning scores of 25-18, 25-13 and 25-11; and No. 14 Wisconsin-Platteville (32-3) shut out sixth-seeded Dominican University (Ill., 26-10), 3-0, with winning scores of 25-18, 25-20 and 25-16.
