The Dominican University women's volleyball team won their third Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) tournament championship in the last five years, posting a four-set (17-25, 25-20, 25-11, 25-21) win over the visiting Edgewood College Eagles on Saturday evening in the Igini Sports Forum.  Carri Chambers (Winnebago, Ill.) and Caitlen Foote (Dexter, Mich.) fueled the Stars' offensive attack, tallying 17 kills apiece to head an attack that posted a .275 hitting percentage on the night.
 
Edgewood raced out to an early 9-4 lead in the first set before Dominican bounced back to pull within one at 11-10.  The Eagles quieted the comeback, scoring 11 of the next 16 points to put the Stars in a seven-point hole 22-15.  The teams then traded points as the Eagles closed out a25-17 first-set victory.
 
Edgewood, paced by Savanah Koester and Sarah Schuchhardt, hit .250 in the opening set.  Koester and Schuchhardt each knocked down three kills in the set.  Dominican managed just an .098 hitting percentage in the opening frame as the Eagles collected 22 digs and the Stars committed six errors.
 
Dominican responded, never trailing in the second set after opening a 7-3 lead and forcing an early timeout for the Eagles.  Out of the timeout, Edgewood climbed all the way back to even the score, 9-9, and the teams traded points all the way to 16-16 before Dominican reclaimed the lead on back-to-back Edgewood errors prior to a kill by Foote and the Stars never looked back.
 
Kendyl Todd (Crete, Ill.) came off the bench in the second set, sparking the Dominican offense with four kills on six swings.
 
The third set was all Dominican as the Stars hit .433 for the set.  Chambers knocked down six kills in the set while defensively Christina Wilson (Homer Glen, Ill.) collected seven digs.  Becky Honerlaw (Waukesha, Wis.) served the final five points of the set for Dominican, putting an exclamation point on the set as she closed it out with a service ace, one of three aces in the set for the Stars.
 
With the tournament title in their sights, Dominican opened a 17-10 lead in the fourth set before the Eagles put together a quick run to climb with 18-14 and force a Stars' timeout.  Out of the break, Edgewood scored the next two points, including an ace by Rachel Thomsen as the Stars' lead shrank to 18-16.  Foote then took over, stopping a five-point Edgewood run with one of her seven kills in the set.  Foote added two more kills down the stretch as Dominican finished off the Eagles.
 
Wilson dished out 44 assists and collected 14 digs as she posted her 21^st double-double of the season in the winning effort.  Becca Fritz (Mt. Carroll, Ill.) added eight kills and six assisted blocks as the senior amassed 11.0 total points on the night.
 
Defensively, the Stars posted 11 total blocks at the net while Cheyanne Kelly (Kalamazoo, Mich.) logged a match-high 24 digs as she patrolled the Dominican back row.  Foote added 12 digs, posting a double-double of her own.
 
The Eagles were paced by junior Jordan Winkler who knocked down 14 kills and posted a .333 hitting percentage.
 
With the win, Dominican secures the NACC's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Women's Volleyball Tournament, the Stars' fourth national tournament appearance since 2010.  The Stars, 24-11 on the season, find out the details of their 2014 national tournament appearance on Monday on the NCAA's selection show at 10:00 a.m.