ADRIAN, Mich. – The Indiana Tech women's volleyball team ended the regular season Saturday evening with a 3-1 (25-20, 18-25, 25-21, 25-21) win over Siena Heights University inside the SHU Fieldhouse. With the win the Warriors claimed the number three seed in next week's WHAC Tournament and will host Concordia University in a quarterfinal contest on Wednesday.
Noelle VanOort and
Taylor Paul both recorded match-high 18 kills, with the former hitting .349 and recording 10 digs and three service aces while the latter hit .424 with three digs.
Emma Westra had 12 kills, nine digs and three blocks while
Jacey Blust had 20 digs.
Andrea Schriver dished out 32 assists while Kelsey Schladenbrand had 23.
Tech got out to a 6-1 lead in the first and never looked back as they led wire-to-wire. The Warriors led by as many as seven points, with the latest coming at 22-15. Siena Heights went on a 4-0 run to cut the deficit to 22-19 and force the Warriors to call a timeout, but the Orange and Black recovered to take three of the next four points to take the opening set.
The Saints controlled the momentum from the opening serve in set two as they got out to a 7-1 run before extending their advantage to 11-3. The Warriors would slowly chip away at the lead, cutting it down to 15-11, but unable to get any closer than four points the rest of the way as they dropped the second set.
The third set went back and forth between the two rivals with 14 ties, the last one coming at 16-all. A kill from VanOort started a 4-0 run for Tech for their largest lead of the set and force a timeout by the hosts. Siena Heights could not close the gap as the Warriors took the third set to go up 2-1 in the match.
Tech raced out to a 5-1 lead in the fourth and grew the lead to 10-5 to put the pressure on the Saints. Siena Heights responded to the challenge with a 5-0 run to take a 15-14 lead, but the Warriors wouldn't let them get ahead by anymore as they took the next two points. The back-and-forth action continued until a timeout by Tech as they held a 22-21 lead. Coming out of the timeout the Warriors took the next three points to complete the victory and the season sweep of the Saints.
Tech (23-12, 15-5 WHAC) returns to action Wednesday as they host Concordia University in the quarterfinals of the WHAC Tournament. First serve is set for 7 p.m. from the Schaefer Center.