New Wilmington, PA – The Geneva College women's volleyball team had lost twice to Westminster College during the regular season but on Friday night the two teams matched up for the most important meeting of the season. Top seeded Westminster outlasted Geneva in the Presidents' Athletic Conference semi-finals 3-2. The victory pushed the Titans to the conference championship and an overall record of 30-2 while Geneva fell to 19-12 and will now play the waiting game to see if it receives and at-large bid to the NCCAA Division II national tournament in two weeks.
Coming off its quarter-final victory over Grove City on Tuesday night, the Golden Tornadoes road that momentum into Friday night and managed to take the first set by the score of 25-22. Trailing 20-18 in the first stanza, Geneva reeled off six straight points to gain control and was able to finish things off to take an early lead. Westminster responded by capturing sets two and three by the scores of 25-18 and 25-21, but the Golden Tornadoes were far from finished.
With the fourth set tied 6-6, Geneva scored eight of the next ten points to open up a 14-8 lead and it never looked back to even the match at two sets apiece with a 25-20 win. The fifth and deciding set opened with both teams splitting the first four points but it was Westminster who gained control by putting up the next seven points to take a commanding lead that led to a 15-9 final set victory.
"We really battled tonight," said Geneva head coach
Wendy Smith. "We came out exactly the way we needed to and had some great opportunities slip away in the middle of the match. We certainly put ourselves in a great position to win the match but things just didn't go our way in the final set. I'm proud of our effort and hopefully we have done enough to earn a spot in the NCCAA tournament. I think our team and especially our seniors have earned that opportunity."
Geneva got a balanced attack on Friday night with three players posting at least 12 kills with
Kacey Costal and
Allyssa Kerr each finishing with 14 kills and
Sydney McNulty knocking down 12.
Daphne Hunsinger came within one kill for the second match in a row of posting a triple-double. Hunsinger had nine kills, 39 assists and 18 digs in the loss.
McKenna Shick led the defense with 30 digs.
The NCCAA selection process will take place next weekend following several regional tournaments. Should the Golden Tornadoes earn a berth to the national tournament in Greenville, South Carolina, it would begin play on November 15th.
Geneva College is a Christ-centered academic community that provides a comprehensive education to equip students for faithful and fruitful service to God and neighbor. Offering over 80 traditional undergraduate majors and programs, fully online Adult Degree Programs, and high-demand graduate degrees, Geneva's programs are recognized for their high quality. U.S. News & World Report ranks Geneva as a Top Three Best Value Regional University with one of the Top 100 engineering programs in the nation. Adhering to the truth of Scripture, a Geneva education is grounded in God's Word as well as in a core curriculum designed to prepare students vocationally to think, write and communicate well in today's world.
