The Carthage College women's volleyball team (35-3), ranked 14th in the Nov. 11 American Volleyball Coaches Association NCAA Division III poll, is playing host to an NCAA Division III Women's Volleyball Regional Championship on Thursday-Saturday, Nov. 13-15 at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis. 
 
Top-seeded Carthage (35-3) swept eighth-seeded Dominican University (Ill., 24-12), 3-0, in a Thursday, Nov. 13, regional-quarterfinal match at the Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis.  The Lady Reds' winning set scores over the Stars were 25-15, 25-15 and 25-19.  On the same side of the bracket, fourth-seeded and No. 28 DePauw University (27-10) swept fifth-seeded and No. 25 the University of Chicago (26-13), 3-0, with winning scores of 25-19, 25-19 and 25-18.  Defending-national-champion, second-seeded and No. 1 Calvin College (28-3) is on the other side of the bracket, and the Knights swept seventh-seeded and No. 33 Wisconsin-Oshkosh (31-8), 3-0, with winning scores of 25-23, 25-22 and 25-13.  Third-seeded and No. 16 Elmhurst College (31-8) outlasted sixth-seeded and No. 24 Wisconsin-Whitewater (26-9), 3-2, with winning scores of 14-25, 25-21, 22-25, 32-30 and 16-14. 

Calvin (28-3) takes on Elmhurst (31-8) in Friday's first semifinal at 4:30 p.m., with DePauw (27-10) playing Carthage (35-3) in the other semifinals contest at 7 p.m.  The Saturday regional-championship match also gets underway at 7 p.m.

Carthage came out strong in their first set against Dominican, opening with a Lady Red kill by Bria Hailey (Jr., Hanover Park, Ill./Schaumburg). The Lady Reds quickly pulled ahead of the Stars with an eight-point lead after a service ace by Sara Shumaker (Sr., Bristol, Wis./Salem-Westosha Central) to bring the score to 19-11. Carthage kept their energy high and closed out the first set 25-15, with a kill by Emily Heuermann (Jr., Washington, Ill./Washington). The Lady Reds continued to show a strong offense in the beginning of the second set, opening with a kill by Stefanie Romanowski (So., Kenosha, Wis./Bradford). The Stars tried to keep the game interesting pulling within one-point at 13-12, but the Lady Reds stepped up their energy and continued to attack, taking a six-point lead at 20-14, after a kill by Mallory Parsons (Fr., Lake Zurich, Ill./Lake Zurich). Carthage closed out the second set, 25-15, with an ace by Luci Krenzke (Fr., Racine, Wis./Greenfield).

Dominican battled in the third set, keeping within at least three points of Carthage until finally tying the score up at 11-11. Carthage quickly responded with back-to-back kills by Heuermann and Rachel Fields (Sr., Chicago, Ill./Oak Park-Fenwick) to take a five-point lead at 16-11.  However, the Stars continued to keep the game interesting and battled back to retie the score up at 16-16.  Carthage did not let this affect their momentum and continued to compete with a strong offense, finishing out the third set, 25-19, with a kill by Heuermann.
 
"It's always nice to get the first one under your belt," said Carthage coach Leanne Ulmer.  "We made a few hitting errors to start the match, but we settled in.  Bria Hailey was very active at the net, touched a lot of balls and getting us kills.  Karen Chin had her usual good-setting game.  We served well, and our ball control was really good for the first two sets.  The third set slowed down a bit, and we didn't take care of the ball as well.  We did not look past Dominican toward what's coming next, and we haven't all year.  We try and take every point and every match as it comes."
 
Heuermann led the Lady Reds to victory with 15 kills assisted by teammate Parsons who had 9 kills.  Karen Chin (Jr., Mundelein, Ill./Mundelein) collected 40 assists, while teammate Hannah Cahoon (Sr., Watertown, Wis./Watertown) had 18 digs.
 
"Everyone is really confident right now," said Karen Chin, " and we have really good chemistry.  We just keep pushing forward, even if we lose a point."