The Dominican University women's volleyball team closed out Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) regular season play on Tuesday night, topping the Concordia University Chicago Cougars in five sets (22-25, 21-25, 25-15, 27-25, 15-10) to overcome a two-set deficit for the second time in the last three matches. With the win, the Stars improve to 16-10 overall and close out conference play at 8-3, earning the four-seed in the 2017 NACC Women's Volleyball Tournament.
After committing 17 hitting errors and converting at a .116 clip through the first two sets of the night, Dominican's offense found new life in the third set, knocking down 13 kills while committing just five errors and going 13-for-15 on sideouts.
Dominican carried the momentum through the fourth and fifth sets, not letting the Cougars string together many runs, going 28-for-37 on sideouts through the final two sets.
Offensively, the Stars featured their most balanced attack of the season, finishing with five attackers in double-digit kills paced by
Elin Ream's 17 kills. The sophomore knocked down three kills in the deciding set on just four swings, finishing the night with a .237 hitting percentage.
Kendyl Todd and
Alex Kisten added 13 and 12 kills respectively while
Gillian Jones and
Stephanie Cole tallied 11 kills apiece. Freshman setter
Anastasia Labadessa finished the night with a season-high 54 assists.
Defensively, Dominican posted ten total blocks, including seven for Todd and four total blocks for Labadessa. In the back row,
Megan Parker led the way with 25 digs while LaVigne added 17 and Labadessa and Jones rounded out double-doubles with 15 digs and 12 digs respectively.
For the Cougars, Jaylynn Johnson led the way with 15 kills on 37 attacks while Jennifer Livesay added 12 kills of her own.
Dominican will close out the regular season at the Benedictine University Eagle Classic, taking on Greenville College and Carthage College on Friday night. The Stars will then host a NACC Tournament quarterfinal match on Tuesday, hosting the number five-seed Lakeland University Muskies at 7:00 p.m.
