Women's Volleyball starts NAIA National Tournament with exciting five-set win

SIOUX CITY, Iowa - The Viterbo University Women's Volleyball team began their run at the NAIA National Volleyball tournament in Sioux City, Iowa on Tuesday morning. The V-Hawks played the Oregon Tech Owls and won in five sets (22-25, 32-30, 26-24, 22-25, 15-13). 

Oregon Tech got the early set one lead and kept the lead to win set one, 25-22. The Owls also got the early set two lead, leading 17-13, but a 9-0 service run for Cassidy Spies, paired with some big kills from Grace Rohde put the V-Hawks up 23-20. The final set two points were very back-and-forth after the Owls were able to tie things back up with a couple of V-Hawk errors. However, a kill from Rohde secured the set two win for Viterbo. 

Set three was close throughout the whole set, with neither team leading by more than four at any point. The set ended with a kill from Miah Garant and a block by Garant and Rohde to get the 26-24 set three win. Set four was very similar to set one, with the V-Hawks leading 21-19; however, the Owls were able to go on a four-point run to regain the lead and come back for the set win to tie things up at two apiece. 

The Owls got the early 2-1 lead in set five but the V-Hawks chipped away at their lead to go ahead 7-4 after a couple of attack errors for the Owls and a kill from Kenzie Winker led to an Oregon Tech timeout. Oregon Tech fought back after their timeout to tie things back up at eight, causing Coach DeLong to use a timeout. Out of the timeout, Viterbo went on a 5-1 run to go up 13-9. A kill from Garant made it match point for the V-Hawks but the Owls weren't quite done, positioning themselves within two with Viterbo leading 14-13. Rohde had a block to finish the set and win the match in five sets. 

Miah Garant had 20 kills and only four errors for a total hitting percentage of .410 throughout the match. Grace Rohde contributed 14 kills and Kenzie Winker tallied 11 kills. Lauryn Sobasky had a team-high 32 assists and Abbey Johnson had 24 total. Four V-Hawks had over 15 digs in the match, with Winker having a team-high 18 digs. Kenidi McCabe was right behind her with 17 total digs. Mariah Calkins and Maya Roberts each had seven blocks in the match. 

Viterbo will be back in action tomorrow against Concordia (Neb.) at 10:30 a.m. CST. Follow the action on viterboathletics.com or by following us on social media.