Lexington, Ky. – The Transylvania volleyball team opened up the 2021 Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament on Wednesday evening with a convincing 25-20, 25-20, 25-14 win over the Manchester University Spartans in the quarterfinal round at the Beck Center.
Transylvania defeated Manchester for the second time in less than two weeks to kick off its tournament run with a momentum-boosting victory, setting up a semifinal matchup against tournament No. 2 seed Mount St. Joseph University on Saturday afternoon at 5:00 p.m. in Richmond, Indiana on the campus of Earlham College.
The winner of the semifinal contest between Transy and Mount St. Joseph will advance to Sunday afternoon's championship match, hosted by conference tournament No. 1 seed Earlham.
Cate Scheper fueled the offense up front with a match-high 17 kills, adding a block to go with a red-hot .438 attacking percentage. Sylvie Miller provided another efficient performance for the Pioneers with seven kills for a .417 attacking percentage and also had seven digs.
The Pioneers went to work early, breaking open a 12-12 ballgame in the first set by scoring nine of the next 12 points to climb out in front. Kaetlin Ethington erupted early, registering five of her eight kills in the opening set as the Pioneers totaled 15 kills overall.
Transy roared to a 6-0 lead in the second set as Kayden Holcomb held serve. Scheper notched three kills during the run to help put the second set out of reach early. The Pioneers' attacking percentage heated up to .361 in the set behind another 18 team kills. Scheper was nearly unblockable, tallying nine of her 17 kills in the middle set.
Manchester tried to hang with the Pioneers early in the third set, but the Pioneers embarked on another 6-0 run to pull away from the Spartans. Ethington, Scheper, and Karrington Jackson led the run as the Pioneers ended Manchester's season while picking up their 21st win of the season.
Grace Ward led the way with 24 assists while etching her own personal piece of history. With her 18th assist of the night, Ward became the sixth Pioneer in program history to hit the 1,500 assist mark for her career.
The tournament No. 3 seed Pioneers now look ahead to Saturday's semifinal against No. 2 Mount St. Joseph at approximately 5 p.m. The HCAC semifinal matchup will follow the first contest of the day between No. 1 seed Earlham and No. 4 Hanover, set for 2:00 p.m. at Druley Performance Gymnasium.
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