Indianapolis, Ind. - The No. 4 Transylvania volleyball team wrapped up its 2020-2021 season with a deep tournament run at the AVCA Invitational Tournament on Friday and Saturday at The Academy Volleyball Club.

The AVCA Tournament served as the national postseason tournament for the Pioneers and 13 other participating teams which hailed from all over the country for a final weekend of volleyball play. After competing in a conference-only schedule for the delayed 2020 season, the Pioneers faced their first opponents outside of the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference last Friday.

Playing in three best-of-three matches, the Pioneers marched through their competition on Friday to advance into the "Gold bracket" on Saturday pitting the final four undefeated teams. The Pioneers started Friday's preliminary round with a 25-17, 25-16 victory over Lakeland in the morning, and defeated Illinois Wesleyan 28-26, 21-25, 25-21. Transylvania stamped its ticket into the gold bracket with a 25-17, 21-25, 25-22 win over Greenville in the final match on Friday.

In the Saturday morning match, the Pioneers battled No. 7 Millikin in the gold bracket semifinal with a trip to the afternoon's championship match on the line. The Pioneers erased a two-set deficit to force a fifth set before Millikin held off the Pioneers to win 25-17, 25-16, 15-25, 21-25, 15-11.

Sylvie Miller led the Pioneers in kills with 13 while Karrington Jackson added 10 and Madison Sweeney and Suzanne Klosterman each had nine.

Grace Ward had an all-around effort in the five-setter against Millikin with a team-high 38 assists, four aces, and three blocks.

The Pioneers aimed to bounce back in the gold bracket consolation match against No. 9 Elmhurst, the final match of the weekend for both teams. Elmhurst went on to prevail over Transylvania 25-16, 19-25, 25-20, and 28-26 as the Pioneers narrowly missed out on forcing a fifth set.

Jackson and Erin Nerland led the Pioneers in the final match with 10 kills apiece; Jackson added one solo block and a block assist to go with three digs as the sophomore was selected to the AVCA All-Tournament Team.

Ward paced all players with 42 assists to go with 10 digs, two kills, and two solo blocks. Ava Beltsos led the way with 17 digs.

The AVCA Invitational Tournament provided the last run in 2020-21 for a Transylvania team sporting 13 sophomores and newcomers. The Pioneers will commence the 2021 season later this fall.

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