UMAC crowns tri-champions for 2019 regular season volleyball
ST. PAUL, Minn.---For the first time in Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) history, three teams have been crowned as champions in volleyball as the College of St. Scholastica, University of Minnesota Morris and University of Northwestern all finished with 7-1 conference records to share the title at the conclusion of the season Wednesday evening.
Northwestern used a huge 3-0 straight-set win on their own court Wednesday to hand Minnesota Morris its first conference loss of the season and avenge their loss in the 2018 tournament finale last fall. With the win, the Eagles have clinched the No. 1 seed in the postseason tournament on conference tiebreaker criteria.
The championship win is the ninth-straight title for the Eagles and their 12th in the last 13 seasons. Northwestern – which was ranked No. 6 in the NCAA Division III Central Region earlier in the day – has now won 10-striaght matches overall and a fifth-consecutive UMAC match since falling to St. Scholastica on Oct. 1.
Minnesota Morris had won seven-straight conference matches and had dropped just one total set before the loss to the Eagles Wednesday. The Cougars kicked off the conference slate with a 3-0 win over St. Scholastica – the lone loss on the season for the Saints – and then went on to defeat their next six opponents to wrap up their share of the title on Saturday with a 3-0 win over Northland College.
The Saints defeated Northland 3-0 Wednesday – prior to the completion of the Eagle-Cougar match – to finish their season on a seven-game conference winning streak and wrapped up their share of the title en route to home from Ashland. The title is the first for the Saints since sharing the championship with Northwestern in 2011 and is just the sixth in program history. The Saints followed up their loss to the Cougars on Sept. 28 with a spectacular 3-2 win at home over Northwestern in the very next conference match to put themselves in a position to share the title.
Northwestern holds the tiebreaker over both Minnesota Morris and St. Scholastica based on percentage of sets won between the three tied teams. Minnesota Morris will be the No. 2 seed – based on a head-to-head win over the Saints – and will host No. 3 seed St. Scholastica in a semifinal match next Wednesday, Nov. 6 in Morris at 7 p.m.
The top-seeded Eagles will host a semifinal match Wednesday at 7 p.m. against the winner of the quarterfinal match that will pit No. 4 University of Wisconsin-Superior against No. 5 Bethany Lutheran College at 7 p.m. Monday in Superior, Wisconsin.