UMAC Volleyball Tournament set for first serve on Wednesday
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Championship Video Preview: Rebecca Engelbrecht, Martin Luther College
ST. PAUL – The first serve of the 2013 Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) Women’s Volleyball Tournament is set for Wednesday at 7 p.m. with the two semifinal contests of the four-team single elimination tournament scheduled.
The University of Northwestern will enter the 2013 postseason tournament as the No. 1 seed and will host fourth-seed College of St. Scholastica in St. Paul. The Eagles, who compiled a 13-1 UMAC record and earned a share of the regular season conference trophy, will look to capture their second straight UMAC postseason title behind the leadership of senior setter Krista Stoltz. Stoltz leads the league in assists per set with averaging 10.98 and is also currently first among NCAA Division III active career leaders in assists per set. The Saints (8-6 UMAC) will look to make a postseason run behind outside hitter Kortney Morrin who ranks second in the UMAC in kills per set (3.28).
At the same time, second-seeded University of Minnesota Morris will host Martin Luther College who enters the tournament in the No. 3 spot. After compiling a 13-1 conference record the Cougars were named regular season co-champions along with Northwestern. The Knights (10-4 UMAC) are led by the duo of setter Miranda Maasz and outside hitter Rebecca Engelbrecht. Engelbrecht, who leads the league in kills, reached the 1,000 career kills and 1,000 career digs milestones this season. For the Cougars, hitter Abby Tietz and Emily Auch both rank in the top five in the UMAC offensively while libero Kaylie Clark leads the conference in digs this season averaging 5.37 per set.
The semifinal winners will advance to the UMAC Tournament championship game at 7 p.m. on Saturday at the site of the highest remaining seed. The league’s automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament will be awarded to the 2013 UMAC Volleyball Tournament Champion, who will learn about their destination and opponent on Monday.