Watertown, WI - Grace Women's volleyball traveled to host school Maranatha Baptist University for the NCCAA DII Women's Volleyball Regional Tournament. The Tigers entered the tournament as the #2 seed, receiving a first round bye in the tournament.

Semi-Final Match: 
Their first match would come Friday night in the semi-finals against the #3 seeded Great Lakes Christian College. This would be the third meeting between the two teams this season. 

The Crusaders would get off to a hot start going on a 10-0 run to start the game. The Tigers worked hard to fight back but would ultimately fell short, dropping the first set 20-25. The Tigers would bounce back quickly in the second set. After some back and forth scoring the Tigers would go on a 7-0 run to put the game out of reach and win the second set by a final of 25-13. The Crusaders would go on to win the third set, putting the Tigers in danger of elimination. But the Tigers responded by coming out and battling their way to a well earned 25-19 win, to force a fifth set. 

The 5th set was yet another back and forth game with both teams fighting to keep their season alive. With the Tigers up 9-7 in the first to 15, match deciding set, Leah Buller would collect 3 kills, in addition to a Crusaders miscue to give the Tigers a 13-7 lead. The Crusaders would try and fight back but the Tigers would close the game out with a 15-11 win sending them to the Regional Championship! 

Morgan Martin finished the match with 23 kills, 21 digs, and 5 aces, while Alexa Borgaman tallied 16 kills of her own. Lily Hulst finished with an impressive 49 assists while Kyrsten Nolen had an outstanding game defensively finishing with 26 digs. 

Championship Match: 
Following an exciting win in the semi-finals, the Tigers would head to their second Regional Championship game in as many years. They would take on the #1 seed Eagles from Emmaus Bible College. 

The Eagles would get off to a hot start gaining momentum early and riding that momentum to an early lead in the match, two sets to none. Again, on the verge of elimination, the Tigers would not go away easily. 
In a back and forth contest the Eagles would work their way to a 24-23 lead giving them match point. The Tigers would take advantage of an Eagles miscue to tie the game at 24, Alexa Borgaman would then ace her serve making it set point in the Tigers favor. Then, Freshman Madison Postma would deliver a huge kill to win it, forcing a fourth set, and keeping the Tigers hopes alive. 
The fourth set would prove to be more of the same, with back and forth scoring from both sides. After being tied at 10 a piece, the Tigers would catch fire and go on an 11-3 run, opening up a 21-13 lead. The Eagles would look to make it close, but with a 24-18 lead Morgan Martin would deliver the winning kill to force a fifth set!

Riding all the momentum, the Tigers would use that to spring out to a quick 5-0 lead in the deciding set forcing an early timeout from the Eagles. The Eagles would come out and immediately stop the scoring run, but the Tigers would hold onto the momentum and extend the lead to 13-4. The Eagles would close the gap by a few points before Morgan Martin would deliver the kill to put the game away, giving the Tigers back to back Regional titles!

"I am so proud of the way the team handled adversity and never gave up," said coach Kerri Schultz. "Being down two sets in the finals, it would have been very easy to put our heads down and give up, but the girls played their hearts out and fought back to earn this win, they deserved it!"

Triston Murray, Morgan Martin, and Kyrsten Nolen all finished with 20+ digs on the day, while Lily Hulst had yet another outstanding game, finishing with 43 assists. 

With the Regional title, the Tigers are set to head to the NCCAA National Tournament later this month in Joplin, Missouri, November 19-23. Stay tuned for game times, matchups, and results.