The Dominican University women's volleyball team scored their largest win of the season on Wednesday night at the Igini Sports Forum, knocking off the defending Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) champions, the Aurora University Spartans, in five sets, 25-17, 24-26, 20-25, 25-20, 15-6.  With the win, the Stars secure the number four-seed in the 2019 NACC Tournament, wrapping up the regular season with a 22-6 overall mark and 9-3 record in league play.  The Stars finish the season as the lone team to knock off two of the NACC's three regular season champions, scoring wins over Lakeland and Aurora while losing to the Concordia Wisconsin Falcons in five sets.
 
"This was a big win for us to lock up the fourth-seed of the conference tournament," commented Cameron Andrew, the Stars' head women's volleyball coach in his second season. "I am really proud of our team's ability to fight through adversity. That was something we didn't have midway through the season. We still need to do a better job of playing with confidence and control for an entire match."
 
"Our block and defense were fantastic tonight. They did exactly what we had set out to do. Without that defensive effort, we would not have been successful tonight."
 
The Stars impressed the home crowd in the opening set, out-hitting the NACC leader .242 to .154 in the opener.  Haley Notzen and Gabija Sinickaite swung heavy hands for the Stars, combining for seven first-set kills while committing just one error on 13 swings.  The Stars also served up four aces without committing an error at the serving line while the Spartans committed three service errors in the first set.
 
The Spartans' defense set the tone in the second and third sets, picking up five blocks and collecting 47 digs to force the Stars into a .103 attack percentage to open a 2-1 lead in the match.
 
Dominican's attack and block sprang to life in the fourth set, evening up the match after knocking down 17 kills in the fourth and posting five blocks.  Gillian Jones and Keely McCallum led the attack.  Jones tallied six of her team-high 16 kills in the fourth stanza while McCallum posted four kills and three block assists as the Stars evened the match at two sets apiece.
 
In the deciding set, the Stars opened an 8-3 lead and never looked back, going a perfect 6-for-6 on sideouts.  Jones knocked down three kills in the fifth set while Olivia Magnussen and Haley Notzen combined for a pair of Dominican blocks.
 
Anastasia Labadessa and Natalie Jones ran the Stars' offense on the night, doling out 36 and 13 assists respectively while spreading around the ball. Gillian Jones finished with a team-high 16 kills, leading three in double-digit kills.  Summer Smith added 12 kills on 42 swings while McCallum finished the night with 11 kills on 27 swings.  Sinickaite and Notzen added eight kills apiece while Magnussen ended the night with four kills.
 
Sarah Lychock won the battle of the NACC's top two liberos, collecting a match-high 32 digs, leading a Dominican back row effort that collected 96 digs on the night.  Aurora's Julia Wood finished the night with 23 digs.
 
For the Stars, Gillian Jones and Natalie Jones both rounded out double-double efforts with 19 and 11 digs respectively.
 
At the net, the Stars posted 11 total blocks.  Magnussen finished the night with eight block assists while Notzen got in on seven blocks.
 
Dominican will sit idle until NACC Tournament play opens next Tuesday night.  The Stars, the tournament's fourth-seed, will host the Wisconsin Lutheran College Warriors for a quarterfinal match. The match is slated for a 7:00 p.m. start.
 
"Looking forward to Wisconsin Lutheran," said Andrew, "we know they are coming off a big win over CUW and they are going to come into our gym looking to pay us back for stealing on a win on their home floor this past weekend. Tomorrow we need to get back in the gym and get a little bit better to be ready for the postseason."