The Carthage College women's volleyball team (36-3), 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. 
 
Carthage swept No. 28 DePauw University (27-11), 3-0, in a Friday, Nov. 14 regional-semifinal match. The Lady Red's winning set scores over the Tigers were 25-23, 25-19, and 25-20. Carthage previously swept eighth-seeded Dominican University (Ill., 24-12), 3-0, on Thursday advance to the semifinals. The Lady Reds' winning set scores over the Stars were 25-15, 25-15 and 25-19. 
 
"This was a great match, and the crowd was really pumped," said Carthage coach Leanne Ulmer.  "We played DePauw earlier this season, and they're a really solid team.  I thought our defense was really on tonight, our passing was great as usual, and we served them tonight.  I think our serving took DePauw out of their game a little bit, and we got some key blocks when we needed them.  We weren't playing our best in the first set, but we steeled ourselves like we've done all year, and we got some momentum by winning that first one."
 
Calvin (29-3) defeated Elmhurst (31-9), 3-1, in Friday's first semifinal with winning set scores of 25-22, 25-14, 25-17 and 25-21.  Elmhurst let leads of 12-6, 20-16 and 22-20 get away in the first set, and Calvin jumped out to a 15-6 lead in set two.  The Bluejays broke a 25-25 tie in the third set to win, 27-25.  In the fourth-and-final set, the Knights got off to a 17-12 lead.  Elmhurst pulled to within three, 23-20, but Calvin went on to win by four, 25-21.  Laura Danhoff led the Knights with 17 kills, a .395 attack percentage and four block assists.  Maggie Kamp had 16 kills and hot .325 with 16 digs, and Emily Crowe added 10 kills with a .438 mark.  Ellie Diepersloot collected 23 digs and setter Jenna Lodewyk 53 assists. Sam Szarmach, Melissa Nava and Jackie Pavilonis each had 12 kills for the Bluejays.
 
No.14 Carthage (36-3) takes on No. 1 Calvin (29-3) in Saturday's regional-championship match at 7 p.m.  "We have a really tough opponent in Calvin," said Ulmer.  "They're the defending-national-champions, and they have all the pieces.  They're big, they're fundamentally sound, and they're well coached.  It's going to take everything we have.  We have the pieces in place—we just have to execute."
 
The Lady Reds got off to a slow start in the first set of their semifinal match against the Tigers. DePauw took control early on and opened with a five-point lead at 12-7. However, Carthage was determined to battle back and pulled ahead, 16-15, with a kill by Karen Chin (Jr., Mundelein, Ill./Mundelein). The Lady Reds then took a five-point lead over the Tigers with a block by both Chin and Stefanie Romanowski (So., Kenosha, Wis./Bradford) to bring the score to 20-15. DePauw kept their energy high and both teams battled to take the first set. The Tigers tied the score up at 22-22, but the Lady Reds took control with a kill by Rachel Fields (Sr., Chicago, Ill./Oak Park-Fenwick) to bring the score to 23-22, and then closed out the set 25-23.
 
Carthage started off better in the second and took control of the game early on, creating a six-point lead at, 16-10, from back-to-back kills by Fields and Bria Hailey (Jr., Hanover Park, Ill./Schaumburg). The Tigers tried to battle against the Lady Reds, pulling within four-points at 20-16, however, Carthage kept their offensive game strong against DePauw and closed out the second set, 25-19, with a kill by Emily Heuermann (Jr., Washington, Ill./Washington). The energy in the arena was at an all time high at the beginning of the third set, with the Tigers keeping the score tied up with the Lady Reds early on until Carthage finally created a seven-point lead at 20-13 because of four kills in a row by Fields, Hailey, Fields again, and then by Mallory Parsons (Fr., Lake Zurich, Ill./Lake Zurich). DePauw responded back to Carthage's run by pulling within six points bringing the score to 23-19. The Lady Reds took a timeout here to regroup and finished out the final set of the match strong, ending with a kill by Hailey and closing out the set score, 25-20.
 
"We expected to end up in the final match," said Carthage's Emily Heuermann.  "We know Calvin is a great team, and it'll be a fun match.  "I'd rather play really good teams," said Sara Cahoon, " and we want this one and to go on to nationals."
 
Heuermann contributed to a Carthage victory with 12 kills and a .257 attach percentage, as did teammate Fields who had 11 kills. Chin collected 38 assists with a .457 attack percentage and Hannah Cahoon (Sr., Watertown, Wis./Watertown) had 17 digs in the semifinal match against DePauw.