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Volleyball

Eagles claim UMAC tournament championship, await next move

Box Score

ST. PAUL (Nov. 8, 2008) – After sweeping the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) field in the regular season to claim its second consecutive conference championship, Northwestern College followed the same track throughout the postseason tournament, finishing with a 3-1 win over the College of St. Scholastica to claim the tournament championship. 

The Eagles, who claimed a 25-7 win in the first set, took care of business in the second set (25-19) before second seeded-St. Scholastica mounted a brief comeback to take Set 3 25-22. NWC wouldn't let it happen again in the fourth set though, taking the set (25-19) and the match to claim the tournament championship plaque – the team's first since 2005.

Northwestern built a 61-39 advantage in kills while building an attacking percentage of .211 in the match. For most of the match, the Eagles gave an equally impressive performance on defense, tallying 11 blocks and 95 digs.

Steph Koth (Hibbing, Minn./Hibbing) (Hibbing, Minn./Hibbing) had a great night all-around, as the junior led all players with 17 kills and 29 digs. Kathryne Engel (Wayzata, Minn./West Lutheran) (Wayzata, Minn./West Lutheran) and Laura Bicket (Zion, Ill./Zion-Benton Township) (Zion, Ill./Zion-Benton Township), who both played their final match on the Ericksen Center court, added 15 and 11 kills, respectively. Sarah Whitmore (Prior Lake, MN/Prior Lake Christian) (Prior Lake, Minn. /Prior Lake Christian) and Elissa Sandstrom (Cloquet, Minn./Carlton) (Cloquet, Minn./Carlton) also contributed nine and eight kills to Northwestern's offensive attack.

Amy Thompson and Dustie Richardson each recorded 10 kills for the Saints, as both seniors played their final match in a St. Scholastica uniform.

Hillary Slagter (Prinsburg, Minn./Central Minnesota Christian) (Prinsburg, Minn./Central Minnesota Christian) and Leah Kostek (West Des Moines, Iowa/Des Moines Christian ) (West Des Moines, Iowa/Des Moines Christian) combined for 57 assists in the match, while St. Scholastica's Caitlin Aten led her team with 29.

In addition to Koth's 29 digs, Danielle Rhodes (Iowa City, Iowa/City) (Iowa City, Iowa/City) had 19 digs for the Eagles, while Slagter added 14. Cassie Roden paced CSS with 28 digs.

Like Koth, Slagter continued own impressive all-around performance with six blocks.

Northwestern (26-5, 14-0 UMAC), who has won eight straight matches, will now await decisions that are out of the team's hands to determine what comes next. The Eagles have an outside chance of making the NCAA tournament as an independent (the UMAC does not receive an automatic qualifier in its first two years as an NCAA-member conference). If the NCAA bid doesn't come, NWC will most-likely travel to the south side of Chicago to Trinity Christian College for the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) region tournament on Nov. 21-22.
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