Cougars score first-ever UMAC volleyball tournament championship
ST. PAUL, Minn.---For the first time since 2011, the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) has a new postseason tournament champion as No. 3 University of Minnesota Morris ended No. 1 University of Northwestern reign atop the conference with a 3-1 (25-18, 16-25, 25-19, 25-17) victory Saturday.
This marks the first-ever tournament title for Minnesota Morris since joining the conference in 2003. The Cougars will also make their first-ever NCAA Division III tournament appearance after capturing the conference's automatic qualifying (AQ) bid.
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Tournament Site |
Box Score |
In the previous meeting between the two squads, Minnesota Morris had a two-set lead over Northwestern before falling in the next three. This time around, the Cougars were finally victorious and pulled off their first victory in the tournament championship after facing the Eagles each of the last six seasons.
The Cougars came out strong from the get-go quickly building a three-point lead in the first set. The Eagles eventually managed to take the lead at 13-12 before the Cougars rattled off four-straight points and never looked back in the 25-18 opening-set win.
The Eagles roared back in the second set, though, taking it 25-16 and slowing down the Cougars' offense. The Cougars responded in the third jumping out to a four-point lead again early before eventually allowing the Eagles to climb back and take the lead at 17-16. They then won seven of the final eight points to go up 2-1 in the match.
The fourth set opened with a 5-0 run by the Eagles before the Cougars responded with taking nine of the next 10 points. The Eagles tied the set at 11-11 but they wouldn't come any closer as the Cougars closed out the set 25-17 for the win.
Layne Herrmann earned the Tournament MVP honor after finishing the match with 34 assists, eight digs and six kills. For the tournament, she tallied 88 assists (9.78 ast/s) and was a threat attacking in the front row with a total of 11 kills and 17 digs over a two-match span.
Rachel Mathias led the Cougars offensively Saturday with 11 kills and a .409 hitting performance. Tori Everson, Brenna Tinjum and Whitney Schwartz each tallied nine kills, while Alyssa Ukestad led the team defensively with 16 digs. For the Eagles, Sydney Schwitters had a match-high 40 assists and Mariah Halvorsen had 14 kills. Jenay Fuglestad also eclipsed double digits with 12 kills, and Kalley Schwitters had a match-high 18 digs.
The Cougars improved to 22-11 on the season, while the Eagles end the year 23-9. The Cougars will learn their postseason fate Monday at 11:30 a.m. in the Division III volleyball selection show on
ncaa.com.
Playoff Schedule
Quarterfinal Round – Monday, Oct. 29
No. 4 St. Scholastica def. No. 5 Bethany Lutheran, 3-0 |
Box Score |
BLC Recap |
CSS Recap |
Semifinal Round – Wednesday, Oct. 31
No. 1 Northwestern def. No. 4 St. Scholastica, 3-1 |
Box Score |
CSS Recap |
UNW Recap |
No. 3 Minnesota Morris def. No. 2 Wisconsin-Superior, 3-2 |
Box Score |
UMM Recap |
UWS Recap |
Championship – Saturday, Nov. 3
No. 3 Minnesota Morris def. No. 1 Northwestern, 3-1 |
Box Score |
UMM Recap |
UNW Recap |
All tournament information including scores, recaps, team information and more can be found on the UMAC Volleyball Tournament page. Keep up with all of the tournament action on Twitter and Instagram using #UMACchamp.