MADISON, Wis. – No need to ask twice if the Edgewood College volleyball team is ready for the postseason. The third-seed Eagles answered that question with an overpowering 25-11, 25-11, 25-20 victory over sixth-seed Marian University in the NACC Tournament First Round at the Edgedome on Tuesday night. The Eagles set a NACC Tournament record by hitting .442 for the match.
Edgewood College (21-12) was rolling downhill almost from the start of the match. Rachel Tesch sparked the Eagles early in the first set with back-to-back aces for a 5-2 lead. Later, the Eagles built their advantage to 15-6 after a 9-1 run behind the serving of Jordan Winkler and Savannah Koester. In all, the Eagles scored 14 kills and committed no errors in the first set for an attack percentage of .452.
The second set was nearly a carbon copy of the first. Winkler scored back-to-back kills for a 12-5 lead and a Marian University (10-19) timeout. The Eagles committed their first attack error of the match when they held a 17-9 lead in the second set. Edgewood College closed the second set with four consecutive kills, one each from Sarah Schuchhardt and Carley Reuter and the final two from Elizabeth Evans. At the end of the second set, the Eagles were hitting an even .500 with 31 kills and one error in 60 attacks, which threatened the school record attack percentage of .473 set in 2010.
Hot as they were, the Eagles couldn't quite maintain that pace, hitting "only" .343 in the third set victory and finishing the match at .442. Their performance tied for the second best hitting percentage in school history and smashed the previous NACC Volleyball Tournament record of .333 set by both Dominican in 2012 and Lakeland in 2008.
Winkler had 13 kills against just one error to lead the Eagles. Her .522 attack percentage was the fourth highest in NACC Volleyball Tournament history and the seventh highest in Edgewood College history. Evans added 10 kills and no errors for .529, but just missed the minimums for the NACC Tournament and Edgewood College records lists. Reuter finished with eight kills and no errors. Tesch led the Eagles with 14 digs while both she and Koester had two service aces. Haley Schwenn had 21 assists and Schuchhardt led the team with five assisted blocks. Based on available history the four total attack errors committed by the Eagles is a new school record.
Edgewood College advances to the NACC Tournament semifinals for the sixth consecutive season. This time, the Eagles will face second seed Concordia University Wisconsin in Mequon on Thursday night. The Falcons pulled out a narrow 3-2 victory over the Eagles in the NACC opener way back on September 16. The Eagles and Falcons will get underway at 7:00 p.m. with a berth in the NACC Tournament championship match on the line.
