GRANVILLE, Ohio – The College of Wooster volleyball team's remarkable postseason run culminated with a spot in the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament championship match, where Wittenberg University swept the Fighting Scots 25-19, 25-20, 25-10 on Saturday evening at Denison University's Livingston Gymnasium.
Wooster (20-9), which was making its first appearance in the NCAC Tournament title match since 1985, and just its third ever, punched its ticket by dethroning top seed and NCAC champion Denison (19-7) 28-26, 25-19, 19-25, 26-24 in Saturday's semifinal.
The Scots' recent run of large kill hauls in individual sets was at the forefront of Saturday's opener. Wooster logged 20 kills in set one, with senior Katie Billetdeaux tallying nine, and junior Hayley Nash added seven. The assists added up quickly for senior Syd Case, who was already at 16 by the end of frame one. Wooster overcame a three-point deficit in set one, with Billetdeaux's consecutive kills starting a 6-1 stretch.
Eighteen more kills went on the Scots' stat line in set two, seven of which came from Billetdeaux. Wooster again overcame a three-point deficit, with the Scots benefitting from two unforced errors in a four-point stretch, while in the positive column, Billetdeaux and Nash logged kills. Nash's staked the Black and Gold to a 17-16 lead. Strong serving from Case, plus three Billetdeaux kills, helped Wooster pull away, as the Scots utilized a late 5-0 stretch to go up two sets.
Denison maintained control of set three until the Big Red's Sophia Sobota misfired on an attack attempt that tied the frame at 18. Two points later, Nash's kill knotted things up at 19 before Sobota earned redemption with a kill that was the first point of the Big Red's set-ending 6-0 run.
Four points marked the biggest difference in the decisive set, and the action was typically much closer than that. In fact, the teams traded points from 15-15 all the way to 24-24 with the lead changing hands four times in addition to the 10 times the score was tied. Wooster took charge once the scoreboard hit 24-24, with kills from senior Seven Townsel and Nash.
Billetdeaux, an All-NCAC second-team selection, set a new career-high with 22 kills against the Big Red. Nash was next with 20, and junior Sydney Fitzcharles added a season-high 28 digs. Case's career-high 57 assists marked the most in a match in the current scoring era, as did Wooster's 70 kills. Of note, Wooster hit 70 kills in a match for the second time this season, with the other coming against Washington & Jefferson College back on September 17.
Sobota's 16 kills were tops among Denison's squad, as were Jenna Corrao's 22 digs.
Wooster hit .275 to Denison's .208.
In the championship, Wittenberg (21-8) controlled set one with a 7-0 run. Mack Ricketts' ace opened up an 11-5 lead. Wooster had chances to climb back into the mix late, thanks to Nash, who had Wooster within 19-16. Nash again had the Scots within three at 22-19, but Wittenberg's Nicole Belanger snuck in a pair of aces to cap the set.
Billetdeaux pulled Wooster within 16-15 in set two. Leading up to that, the Scots had a 6-4 stretch, with junior Emily Gail and senior Brooke Swain denying Tyler Linkhart at the net early in that section of the match. Wittenberg's Katie Hiestand followed up Billetdeaux's kill with one of her own, and that led to a decisive 5-0 run. The Scots were within three as late as 22-19.
Big Wittenberg runs dominated set three's headlines. Billetdeaux's solo block sparked Wooster for a few rallies, but the Scots ultimately had too big a hole to climb out of by that point.
Case capped the season with 1,144 assists, 11 shy of Autumn Berry's single-season record during the current scoring era. Her 10.79 per-set average is the top single-season mark in the program annals during the current scoring era, and she's the first Scot to finish in double figures since Abbie Casey did so during the 30-point set era in 2006. Nash moved up to third on the scoring-era season kills leaderboard at 432. Billetdeaux, who finished at 342 kills, takes over second-place on the scoring-era single-season hitting percentage list at .340.
Fitzcharles, who matched All-American KateLynn Riley's scoring-era season aces record at 50, and Townsel were Wooster's selections to the all-tournament team.
Hiestand, the NCAC Tournament MVP, led all players with 11 kills, and she had 14 digs.
Wittenberg hit .302 to Wooster's .129.
Of note, Wooster had its first 20-win season since 2011.
Photo courtesy of Levi Rex, NCAC