BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The Carthage College Women's Volleyball opened their 2017 NCAA Division III Women's Volleyball Championship on Thursday night with their 11^th straight win, defeating Concordia University of Wisconsin in the Bloomington Regional quarterfinal, 3-1.
 
Currently ranked #17 in Division III, the Lady Reds improve to 26-8 on the season and end the Falcons' season at 26-3, avenging a Lady Reds' loss from earlier in the season.
 
"Tonight was a great win for the Lady Reds," said head coach Leanne Ulmer after the win.  We played a really tough Concordia team.  Concordia had only loss two matches all year and ten-or-eleven sets all year.  They know how to win and have been doing it all year.  So we knew we would have to play great... We beat a great team tonight and we are very excited about that."
 
In a truly back and forth affair, the Lady Reds edged the Falcons, hitting .194 for the match to Concordia's .127  and despite being on the short end of aces, 6-2, blocks, 10-7, and digs, 80-78, the Lady Reds found a way to control the match in their favor for the win [25-23, 25-16, 14-25, 25-20].
 
Carthage took the first set after digging themselves out of a 17-13 hole late in the first set.  The Lady Reds came back behind the serve of Ellie LeCount as Carthage rallied off five straight kills, including two from Katie Laio and one each from Megan Behrendt, Rachael Kisten and LeCount herself, to take a 18-17 lead.  Tied at 20-20, the Lady Reds took a 22-20 lead following a pair of attack errors, which led to Behrendt's set-winning kill off a rare assist from Megan Fallert.
 
The Lady Reds and Falcons exchanged the second and third sets, as both dominated in their wins, with the Lady Reds taking the second set, 25-16, and Concordia winning the third, 25-14.
 
In the fourth, Carthage jumped out to a 13-8 lead in what looked like it would be a runaway but the Falcons closed the gap to one at 13-12.  The lady Reds would once again grab control of the set, taking a 21-14 lead and this time not relinquishing it to earn the win.
 
Sophomore outside hitter Shannon Kebisek turned in a career-high 21 kills in her first ever NCAA Championship match, while fellow sophomores Megan Behrendt and Ellie LeCount added 14 kills and 44 assists in their respective debuts.
 
On the play of her girls, Ulmer said, "The seniors were great leaders for us tonight.  Luci had a great night.  Shannon Kebisek was amazing tonight with 21 kills, hitting .320, passed a ton of balls when we needed them.  The usual characters also had great nights; Ellie was great at setter; Megan Behrendt did some damage.  And Rachael Kisten had a much better match this time around.  She was really looking forward to this after struggling against them earlier this year. 

Luci Krenzke finished with a team-high 20 digs and Katie Laio and Rachael Kisten led the Lady Reds with four blocks each.  Additionally, Megan Fallert added seven kills and three blocks to round thing out.
 
Next up for the Lady Reds, Carthage College face Illinois Wesleyan University an all-CCIW regional semifinal match, pairing the Lady Reds and Titans for the third time this season.  Tomorrow's regional semifinal is set for 7:00 p.m.  On the other side of the bracket, Millikin University will face Calvin College at 4:30 p.m.