The Dominican University women's volleyball team punched their ticket to the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) Tournament Championship on Thursday night, pulling out a thrilling five-set (21-25, 25-16, 22-25, 25-22, 15-11) win over the visiting Aurora University Spartans in the Igini Sports Forum.
 
The Dominican offense started slow, committing 11 errors in the opening set, posting just a .049 attack percentage.  In total, the Stars committed 16 errors as the Spartans led throughout the entire first set.  For Aurora, Peyton McKenzie and Nicole Kirsner knocked down four kills apiece as the Spartans staked to a 1-0 lead.
 
With the second set tied at 11-11, the Stars' offense found its rhythm.  Dominican scored five of the next six points including a pair of kills by Carri Chambers (Winnebago, Ill.) to open a 16-12 lead and force a Spartans' timeout.  Becca Fritz (Mt. Carroll, Ill.) knocked down one of her three kills in the set for Dominican coming out of the timeout as the Stars started to put the second set away and evened up the match.
 
Behind ten kills from McKenzie, Aurora posted an impressive third set win that saw the Spartans build leads of 7-1 and 18-11 before holding on for a 25-22 win.  Dominican could not find an answer for McKenzie in the set as the sophomore posted a .529 hitting percentage that put the Stars on the ropes.
 
The fourth frame saw Dominican jump out to a 17-7 lead before the Spartans stormed back, pulling to within 23-22 before a kill by Caitlen Foote (Dexter, Mich.) settled down the Stars who then capped off the fourth set with a huge block on McKenzie by Maddi Zanoni (Hudsonville, Mich.) and Fritz.  Fritz and Foote knocked down six kills apiece in the set as the Stars hit .267 with 18 kills.
 
Trailing 7-6 in the deciding set, Dominican rattled off four straight points sparked by a Zanoni kill and capped by a Chamber's kill and the Stars never looked back.
 
Christina Wilson (Homer Glen, Ill.) ran the Dominican offense that featured four hitters with double-digit kills as Wilson racked up 60 assists.  Foote held team-high honors with 19 kills, committing just three errors after the first set.  Zanoni added 16 kills while Chambers and Fritz posted 15 and 12 kills respectively.
 
Defensively, Foote and Wilson rounded out double-double efforts with 15 and 17 digs respectively.  Becky Honerlaw (Waukesha, Wis.) added a match-high 18 digs while Cheyanne Kelly (Kalamazoo, Mich.) tallied 15 digs in the winning effort.  At the net, Dominican posted nine total blocks with Fritz in on four (one solo, three assist) and Tessa Griparis (Belleair, Fla.) totaling five block assists.
 
The Spartans were led by McKenzie's match-high 26 kills on 54 swings.  The sophomore added two service aces for a total of 28 points in the match.
 
Dominican returns to the NACC Tournament Championship for the third time in four years and fourth time in program history.  The Stars will host the Edgewood College Eagles who topped Concordia Wisconsin in four sets in the other conference semifinal match.  The match is slated for a 6:00 p.m. start on Saturday in the Igini Sports Forum.