GRAND RAPIDS. Mich. – Carthage College women's volleyball turned in a complete performance Thursday, November 12th as the Lady Reds advanced to the second round of the 2015 NCAA DIII Volleyball Regional following a straight-set win over the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
 
"It's great to get the first one under our belts, that's for sure," said Carthage women's volleyball head coach Leanne Ulmer.  "I'm not sure we played our best volleyball, but I think our girls got more comfortable as the match went on.  Emily [Heuermann], Karen [Chin] and Stephanie Korbakes really came through for us at the end.  Our block got a little bit better.  I thought our serving was really good and got them out of their system a bit…. That's kind of what we do, so now that we have this one we can hopefully get some of the kinks out and keep it rolling against a very tough opponent in Illinois Wesleyan tomorrow."
 
The win sends Carthage to 32-7 in 2015 and 14-9 all-time in the NCAA tournament. 
 
Carthage hit .219 as a team committing only 12 attack errors in the match to UW-La Crosse's 29 attack errors and .031 hitting percentage.  The Lady Reds also controlled the action at the net with ten total blocks to the Eagles two.
 
After falling behind early in the first set, libero Luci Krenzke calmed the Lady Reds' nerves and served three straight points to give Carthage their first lead of the match at 5-4.  The Lady Reds didn't look back in the set, hitting .278 to La Crosse's .229, with Emily Heuermann tallying seven kills on eight total attacks for an individual hitting percent of .875.  The Lady Reds built an 18-12 lead late in the first set before UW-La Crosse mounted a comeback to within one at 22-21.  But Carthage senior middle blocker Bria Hailey ended the Eagles' comeback with a solo block to put Carthage up 23-21 for good as the Lady Reds took set one, 25-22.
 
Karen Chin would lead the Lady Reds on a 7-1 run early in the second set to give Carthage a 7-3 lead which included two service aces from Chin to give the Lady Reds the lead.  After another ferocious comeback by La Crosse to cut the Carthage lead to 10-9, Carthage used a Leanne Ulmer timeout to finish the set on a 15-7 run for a 25-16 win and a commanding two-sets to none lead.  Carthage finished the second set .200 and was aided by La Crosse's inability to finish their attacks, hitting .000 with 11 attack errors in the set.
 
The third set was dominated by the Lady Reds defense as Carthage registered seven blocks in the set as they rolled to a 25-13 third set win to complete the sweep.  The frontline of Bria Hailey, Stefanie Romanowski and Heuermann each got in on the block party with solo blocks while the score was close early in the set.   Stephanie Korbakes added three block assists in the third set and Anna Kinell and Mallory Parsons each had a single block assist.  Although Carthage hit a match-low .186 as a team in the third set, the Lady Reds forced the Eagles to hit -.077 in the match's final set totaling on eight kills, while Carthage closed out the match on a 15-3 run.
 
Individually, Heuermann and Stephanie Korbakes led the Lady Reds with 10 kills apiece and Chin registered 28 assists, followed by Krenzke with six.  Hailey finished with two solo and four assists to equal her season high of six total blocks.  To go along with her six assists, Krenzke also received a match-high 17 digs in the Lady Reds' opener. 
 
Carthage returns to action at the Grand Rapids Regional Friday at 5:00 p.m. EST when they face CCIW rival Illinois Wesleyan University at Van Noord Arena.   Illinois Wesleyan advanced in the first game of the tournament with a 3-0 win over Dominican University.