The Dominican University women's volleyball team was up against a familiar foe on Wednesday night, knocking off the Edgewood College Eagles in four sets (25-22, 25-22, 21-25, 26-24) in a rematch of the 2015 Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) Tournament Championship match.
 
"I knew this was going to be battle," said Jeanne Czipri, the Stars' head coach.  "Our girls did an excellent job of executing our game plan and maintaining our composure even when we did get a little rattled, we bounced back."
 
Every time the Stars tried to pull away, the Eagles would reel Dominican back in.  The Stars opened a 17-13 lead in the first set only to see Edgewood go on an 8-1 lead to take a 21-18 lead.  Dominican got back in front thanks to six straight Edgewood errors, including a Dominican block by Kendyl Todd and Becky Dent and then put the set away with a big kill from Alex Kisten.
 
After seven ties and four lead changes in the first set, the second set saw just one lead change as Tessa Griparis gave Dominican a 4-3 lead with one of her nine kills on the night, sparking a 9-1 Dominican run that forced a pair of Edgewood timeouts and opened a 12-4 lead for the Stars.  Later in the set, the Eagles used a six-point run of their own to even the set at 21-21 but Todd settled Dominican down with one of her nine kills of the night and then the Stars closed the set thanks to another Kisten kill and a pair of Eagles' errors.
 
The third set saw the Eagles lead from start to finish, leading by as many as six points along the way.  The Eagles attack was on fire in the set, including six kills in the stanza by Elizabeth Evans who finished the night with a match-high 16 kills.  Edgewood hit .231 in the set while the Stars managed just a .103 attack percentage with eight hitting errors.
 
Dominican regrouped and found their composure in the fourth set, staving off set point when Jackie Mursuli and Griparis combined to block Erika Van Engen to even the score at 24-24.  Mursuli then served an ace and the Stars capped the night with a kill by Rosalyn Wyse who finished the night with a team-high 11 kills.
 
Mursuli collected 38 assists as she ran the Stars' offense to a .159 attack percentage with Kisten, Todd and Griparis all finishing with nine kills.
 
Defensively, Audrey Wyse led four players with double-figure digs with 24 while Mursuli rounded out a double-double effort with 17 digs.  At the net, Dominican tallied seven total blocks with Griparis in on six of them (one solo, five assisted).
 
The Stars, now 5-12 on the season and 3-0 in league play, will take a break from NACC action to travel to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, to take on the UW-Oshkosh Titans and St. Mary's College Belles on Saturday.  Dominican then returns to conference play on Wednesday, October 5, when the Lakeland University Muskies come to Dominican.