Box Score #11 Wayne State 3 #1 Concordia-St. Paul 0

            #11 Wayne State College hit a sizzling .410 with 49 kills and just six attack errors to sweep #1 Concordia-St. Paul 25-16, 26-24 and 25-10 Saturday evening in the NCAA Central Regional Volleyball Tournament championship match played at the Gangelhoff Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.  The Wildcats, seeded seventh entering the regional, now advance to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight in Tampa, Florida December 10-12 with a 27-7 record while the Golden Bears close the season with a 29-5 record.
            "I'm extremely proud of the teams' defensive effort this weekend," commented Head Coach Scott Kneifl.  "It was key to our success...tremendous team effort the entire three days.  Kneifl added, "I want to give credit to the four senior captains.  They had this team believing that we could win this regional tournament with some of the best teams in the country.  We look forward to the Elite Eight where we hope to make the Northern Sun Conference proud and bring a national title back to Wayne."
            The host Golden Bears held the lead early in the first set at 6-2.  WSC rallied to knot the score at 9-9 on a kill by senior Elizabeth Gebhardt.  Leading 12-11, the Wildcats used kills from Katie Hughes and Leisa McClintock followed by a Golden Bear attack error for a 15-11 lead. 
            The Wildcats pulled away down the stretch, highlighted by two service aces from Hughes, to win the first set 25-16.
            The second set saw the Wildcats jump out to a 10-6 advantage following a McClintock service ace.  Concordia-St. Paul rallied and got within one point several times, but Wayne State would always answer to push the lead back to three points.
            WSC reached set point at 24-21 following a Hughes kill, but the Golden Bears scored three points in a row to even the set at 24-24.
            The Wildcats then clinched the set with back-to-back kills from Hughes to win the set 26-24.
            Wayne State never trailed in the third set at the Wildcats scored the first five points of the set on a pair of Alyssa Frauendorfer kills, a Bree Ackermann service ace and kills by Michaela Mestl and Gebhardt.
            After CU got within three at 6-3, WSC scored seven of the next eight points to take a commanding 13-4 lead and the Wildcats pulled away for the convincing 25-10 third set win to complete the sweep 3-0.
            Wayne State hit an amazing .410 in the match with 49 kills and just six errors on 105 attacks while Concordia-St. Paul posted a .224 attack percentage with 36 kills and 12 errors on 107 attack.s
            The Wildcats held a 50-45 edge in digs, 44-36 in set assists and produced eight service aces in the win.  Both teams had four blocks.
            Gebhardt led a balanced Wayne State effort with 14 kills and no errors on 22 attempts for a .636 percentage.  Hughes posted a double-double with 13 kills and 13 digs followed by Michaela Mestl with a double-double on 10 kills and 12 digs.
            Senior libero Courtney VanGroningen had 17 digs in the match while senior setter Leisa McClintock handed out 40 set assists in the win.
            Wayne State landed five players on the 12-member All-Central Region Tournament Team announced following the tournament.  They included senior rightside hitter Elizabeth Gebhardt, senior outside hitter Katie Hughes, senior setter Leisa McClintock and senior libero Courtney VanGroningen along with junior middle hitter Alyssa Frauendorfer.
            The Wildcats advance to the Elite Eight at the Bob Martinez Athletics Center in Tampa, Florida as the Central Region champion and will face the Southeast Region champion, which will be decided Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. Central Time when #4 seed Carson-Newman (Tenn.) takes on #7 seed Lenoir Rhyne (N.C.).