River Forest, IL – The 1-seeded Dominican University women's volleyball team took care of business on their home court as they defeated 4-seed Rockford in four sets (25-15, 25-14, 23-25, 25-15) to advance to the Northern Athletics Conference Championship match.
The Stars will host 2-seeded Concordia University of Chicago who defeated 3-seeded Benedictine on Thursday night.
Back-to-back kills by Emily Mahoney out Dominican ahead 11-6 in the opening set before a 6-0 run by the Stars opened up the set at 18-9. Natalie Jones found Olivia Magnussen to push the margin to double figures, 22-12, before an Anastasia Labadessa service ace closed out a 25-15 win.
This time a 7-0 run, capped off by a Keely McCallum kill, opened up a 12-2 advantage for the Stars in the second set. A Gillian Jones kill off the feed from her sister extended the margin to 19-5 but a 6-0 run by the Regents cut the deficit to eight, 19-11. Sarah Lychock set up Emily Schellhase for a kill to put an end to any Rockford comeback as Dominican took set two 25-14.
The Stars found themselves trailing in the third set 12-6 before a pair of bad Regents sets trimmed the margin to two at 12-10. Rockford pushed its lead back to five, 17-12, but a Madi Palmer service ace brought Dominican to within one at 17-16. Another Regents error allowed the Stars to pull ahead by one, 19-18, but errors plagued Dominican down the stretch as it dropped the set 25-23.
The fourth set belonged to the Stars as an 8-0 spurt allowed them to take a 15-5 advantage after another Mahoney finish. Gabija Sinickaite joined in on the fun with a finish to narrow in on match point at 21-10. N. Jones set up McCallum to make it match point at 24-13 before G. Jones sent her team to the NACC Championship match with a kill and 25-15 fourth set win.
G. Jones led all hitter with 13 kills in the match while N. Jones and Palmer shared the setter duties with 16 and 13 respectively. Lychock took charge on the defensive end with 17 digs.
"Our goal at the beginning of the season was to compete for a NACC Championship and we've put ourselves in a position to do just that on Sunday," said Head Coach Cameron Andrew. "I'm proud of this team and look forward to the opportunity to send our seniors out on a high note."
Dominican will look to capture the NACC South Division Title on Sunday, April 18th when it welcomes Concordia University Chicago to the Igini Sports forum for a 7:00 p.m. first serve.
