The Carthage College women's volleyball team (36-4), ranked 14th in the Nov. 11 American Volleyball Coaches Association NCAA Division III poll, saw its magical season come to an end on Saturday night, Nov. 15 with a 3-1 loss to No. 1 Calvin College (30-3) in the title match of the NCAA Division III Women's Volleyball Regional Championship at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis.  Calvin's winning set scores over Carthage were 26-24, 21-25, 25-20 and 25-13.  The estimated crowd of 1,225 broke a Carthage women's volleyball attendance mark of 1200 set against Wisconsin-Oshkosh in the 2010 regional quarterfinals, also at Tarble Arena.
 
"The arena was electric," said Carthage coach Leanne Ulmer, "and the crowd was amazing.  What a venue and what a night.  Nobody wants to lose, but I couldn't be happier with how this team competed.  It was amazing year.  We only lost four matches—most teams would give their right arm for that."
 
Carthage previously swept No. 28 DePauw University (27-11) and eighth-seeded Dominican University (Ill., 24-12), 3-0, in their regional-semifinal and quarterfinal matches. The Lady Red's winning set scores over the Tigers were 25-23, 25-19, and 25-20, and against the Stars were 25-15, 25-15 and 25-19. Calvin shut out Wisconsin-Oshkosh (31-8) in Thursday's quarterfinal, 3-0, and then went on to defeat Elmhurst (31-9), 3-1, in Friday's semifinal. The Knights' winning set scores against the Titans were 25-23, 25-22, and 25-13, and over the Bluejays were 25-22, 25-14, 25-17 and 25-21.
 
"We didn't lose so much, as we got beat by a really good team," continued coach Ulmer.  "The first set could have gone either way.  The first two sets were fun, but we got down in the third set and fought our way back.  It was just too much of them in that third and fourth sets.  Calvin won the serve-pass battle tonight.  Their setter, Jenna Lodewyk, was throwing bullets at us.  You give a team like Calvin seven or eight points in a row, it's tough to come back."
 
In the first set, the Knights came out strong and took a six-point lead over the Lady Reds, 10-4. However, Carthage battled back and came within three points, at 13-10, of Calvin with a kill by Bria Hailey (Jr., Hanover Park, Ill./Schaumburg) until finally tying the score up at 15-15. The Lady Reds took control of the game for a while and created their own lead at 20-17, with back-to-back kills by Rachel Fields (Sr., Chicago, Ill./Oak Park-Fenwick) and Mallory Parsons (Fr., Lake Zurich, Ill./Lake Zurich). However, Calvin stepped up their energy and closed the first set out 26-24. Both teams kept the game tight in the second set, opening with a score of 15-15. The game continued to stay close until a kill by Hailey pulled Carthage ahead 21-20, and set the momentum for the Lady Red's to finish out the second 25-21.
 
Once again the two teams battled at the beginning of the third set keeping the score tight at 11-10 with a kill by Emily Heuermann (Jr., Washington, Ill./Washington). The Knights had a strong attack and were then able to create a eight-point lead over the Lady Reds at 23-15. Carthage tried to recover their deficit with three kills by Heuermann in the latter portion of the set, but Calvin was able to maintain their lead and win the set 25-20. The Lady Reds let leads of 9-13, 10-17 and 11-21 in the fourth and were unable to recover against the Knight's attack with them closing out the final set of the match 25-13.
 
"Carthage played really gutsy," said Calvin coach Amber Warners, "and they have a really nice program.  We held tough when things got down and didn't let things snowball. 
 
Heuermann led Carthage with 15 kills and a .344 attack percentage and teammate Hailey had 10 kills and a .269 attack percentage in the match against the Knights. Karen Chin (Jr., Mundelein, Ill./Mundelein) collected 38 assists with 12 digs, while Hannah Cahoon (Sr., Watertown, Wis./Watertown) had 22 digs.

"Calvin plays so high above the net," said Carthage's Hanna Cahoon. "We haven't faced a team as big as them.  We did our best, but it just wasn't enough."
 
Carthage's Cahoon and Heuermann were named to the 2014 championship all-tournament team, as were Elmhurst's Jackie Pavilonis, DePauw's Elisabeth Wilson, and Calvin's Ellie Diepersloot and Jenna Lodewyk. The Knights' Maggie Camp was named the tournament MVP.