CHICAGO, Ill. — In a five-set thriller, the No. 4 Carthage College women's volleyball team defeated No. 5 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in the NCAA Division III Women's Volleyball Tournament second round Saturday at the Ratner Center.
It was another back-and-forth effort to start with the score tied at eight. Carthage (29-3) scored six straight points to take a 14-8 lead. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (27-4) retaliated with a 8-0 run to switch the score to 16-14. The Lady Reds would get as close as one before the Athenas took the first set 25-21. Carthage took a 11-7 advantage to begin the second until Claremont-Mudd-Scripps battled back to tie the set at 20. An Athenas attack error and a Carthage service ace from
Ellie LeCount tied the game at one apiece.
The Lady Reds jumped out to a 6-3 advantage to start the third before Claremont-Mudd-Scripps climbed back to knot the set at seven. A block from Nicole Acton shifted the score to 10-7 in favor of Carthage. Later in the set, a kill from Andrea Kozak gave the Lady Reds a 16-11 advantage. The Athenas shrank the deficit to one at 21-20 forcing a Carthage timeout. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps went on to tie the set at 26 until a kill from Acton and an attack error gave the Lady Reds a two-set lead.
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps controlled a 16-8 margin in the fourth before going on to force a fifth set at 25-14. In the final set, Carthage went up 6-4 to start. Back-to-back kills from Acton and Behrendt gave Carthage a 12-6 margin. The Lady Reds scored the final three points to take the match 15-7.
Carthage moves on to tomorrow's NCAA Regional Final where they will meet the winner of the Otterbein-UChicago match starting at 2 p.m.
Post-Match Interview
Quick Facts
- Megan Behrendt recorded a double-double on the day finishing with a season-high 18 kills and 17 digs.
- Haley Horner added 11 kills while Shannon Kebisek tallied eight.
- Ellie LeCount collected 45 assists in the match.
- The match marks only the second game this season to go five sets.
- Carthage returns to the NCAA Division III Regional finals for the first time since 2017.
You can keep up with Carthage Athletics by following us on Facebook at facebook.com/carthageathletics, Twitter by following
@CarthageSports, and on Instagram by following
@CarthageAthletics.