NCAA Division III Volleyball Championships

Championship Match - Saturday, November 22

FLYING HIGH: EMORY CAPTURES FIRST NATIONAL TITLE WITH 3-1 VICTORY OVER LA VERNE

by Leah Brock, American Volleyball Coaches Association

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (November 22, 2008) – After trailing 1-0 after the first set, Emory University pulled out all the stops, coming back to defeat the University of La Verne 3-1 Saturday evening in Illinois Wesleyan’s Shirk Center, en route to claiming its first-ever NCAA Division III National Championship. The Eagles won the match by scores of 16-25, 25-21, 25-17 and 25-22.
La Verne (27-3) opened set one with a 4-1 advantage before Emory (35-6) would answer with three consecutive points, including kills by Dani Huffman and Amelia McCall, to knot the score 4-4 early on. The Leopards then kicked it up a notch, and after consecutive service aces by Chelsea Sleight, La Verne found itself on top 14-7. The Eagles took advantage of a Leopards’ error on the ensuing play, however La Verne tallied five of the next six points, using a pair of kills from AVCA First-Team All-American Crista Jones to take a ten point (19-9) lead. The Leopards, taking advantage of three kills in the final homestretch by their other AVCA First-Team All-American, Brianna Gonzales, went on to secure the 25-16 victory. La Verne hit .345 as a team in the frame, while holding the Eagles’ attackers to a .115 clip.
The two squads battled to a 5-5 stalemate to begin the second set until a Brannan O’Neill service ace followed by a kill by AVCA First-Team All-American Alysse Meyer gave Emory a 8-5 cushion. La Verne had other plans, using kills from Anna Calmer, Jones and Rebecca Villanueva to put itself right back in the middle of the war and the teams continued to slug it out throughout the next several points of play. Emory slowly began to pull away, building a three-point (18-15) lead on a Huffman solo block, but again, the Leopards showed their resilience, bouncing back to grab the next two points to make it a one-point affair at 18-17. The Eagles responded with a 4-1 run, holding a 22-18 lead, and used two kills from McCall and kill from Alexandra Wright to capture a 25-21 win. Emory rebounded in stanza to hit .406 as a team, drubbing 15 kills with only two errors. La Verne was efficient as well, attacking at a .343 clip with 16 kills.
The Eagles were flying high in set three, racing out to an 8-2 lead and carrying the momentum throughout most of action, holding a six-point advantage most of the way. Back-to-back bullets by McCall pushed the Emory lead to its largest of the frame at that point, 21-13, and despite Gonzales’ efforts to pull La Verne back within striking distance, the Eagles held on for the 25-17 victory. La Verne totaled just seven kills in the frame for a .087 hitting percentage, while Emory produced 16 kills on .393 attacking.
In a must-win situation for the Leopards, La Verne jumped on top for a 5-1 lead in the fourth set, behind the monster play of Jones, who smashed three kills and added a block during the span. Emory wasn’t going to back down though, as the Eagles used an all-around team effort to claw their way back into the game, tying the score 9-9 on a Wright kill. The action see-sawed back-and-forth until kills by McCall and Huffman put the Eagles ahead 16-14. Emory would not relinquish the lead, holding on down the stretch to clinch the 25-22 match victory.
Huffman again was the star for Emory, drilling 13 kills and adding four blocks and four digs. Wright finished the evening with 11 kills and three blocks, while McCall tallied 12 kills, two digs and two blocks. Natalie Schonefeld registered a match-high 47 assists in the win, while also contributing two kills, two service aces and six digs, and libero, O’Neill collected 11 digs and one ace for the Eagles.
Pacing La Verne was Gonzales, who smashed a match-high 18 kills to go along with eight digs, one ace and one block. Jones was right behind with 16 kills and three blocks, while Villanueva ended the night with three kills, a match-high four service aces and eight digs. Yesenia Lopez collected 41 assists in directing the La Verne offense and also added six digs.