Lexington, Ky. – The Transylvania volleyball team completed regular season play at the Beck Center on Saturday with an impressive sweep of the Anderson University Ravens in four sets and the Denison University Big Red in a match that went the distance.
The Pioneers overcame adversity in both matches to deliver thrilling results, winning 14-25, 25-16, 25-17, 25-19 over Anderson and 25-17, 15-25, 21-25, 25-18, 15-5 against Denison to snap the Big Red's 10-match winning streak and hand them their first loss of October.
The Pioneers finished off Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference play with a record of 7-2 to seal up the No. 3 seed in next week's HCAC Tournament. The Pioneers will host the No. 6 seed Manchester University Spartans on Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. for a berth into next weekend's semifinals at the site of No. 1 seed and weekend tournament host Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana.
Transylvania signed off on the regular season with an overall record of 20-12, marking the third time in the last four full seasons the Pioneers have won 20 or more matches. Anderson fell to 11-13 overall and 4-5 in HCAC play while Denison dropped to 19-6 overall after suffering its first loss since Saturday, September 25 to Earlham.
Cate Scheper registered a career-high 22 kills in the conference regular season finale against Anderson to help turn the tide early on Saturday and finished the entirety of the afternoon with 41 kills. Grace Ward steadied the offense with a match-high 43 assists against Anderson and 47 assists in the five-setter versus Denison.
After the Ravens pulled away for a 25-14 win in the opening set of the first match, the Pioneers quickly roared back with a ferocious second set, tallying 16 kills against two errors for a .341 attacking percentage and a pivotal 25-16 answer. The Pioneers never took their foot off the pedal the rest of the way, amassing 17 kills to only three errors in the third set en route to an 8-point win, and punctuated their conference finale with a 17 to 4 kill to error ratio in the fourth set to pull away.
Sylvie Miller and Ava Beltsos each totaled 16 digs apiece in the win over the Ravens.
Looking to stop Denison's month-long momentum, the Pioneers began their second match with plenty of pop, notching a .320 attacking percentage while holding the Big Red to a negative .031 attacking percentage to issue the first blow.
Denison arranged its defense for the second set and began returning the ball with consistency as the Pioneers were plagued with eight errors in the set, knotting up the match at 1-all.
Denison corralled an early 12-6 lead in the third set and worked its way to a 4-point victory in the set as momentum appeared to be on the Big Red's side. But the Pioneers shook off the effects of the previous two sets to build a 6-3 lead in the fourth set following a kill from Karrington Jackson to set the tone for a stirring finish.
After Denison closed in at 6-5, the Pioneers went on a 6-1 run to grab their own 12-6 advantage. The Pioneers later went on another positive string of scoring fueled by consecutive kills from Scheper to grow a 16-9 lead. A final 5-0 run including kills by Miller, Ward, and consecutive aces by Beltsos handed the fourth set to the Pioneers.
After five early ties in the fifth set, the Pioneers put together one of their most breathtaking runs of the 2021 season, scoring 10 consecutive points to close the lid on the afternoon. Suzanne Klosterman and Miller delivered key kills down the stretch as the Big Red were unable to contend with Transylvania's final wave of the regular season.
Three other Pioneers joined Scheper in double-figure kills as Jackson and Klosterman each totaled 12 kills apiece, and Miller finished with 10 to add to her all-around performance with 15 digs, two assists, and one block.
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