V-Hawks Soar Past Raiders into Bracket Play

SIOUX CITY, Iowa – The Viterbo University Women's Volleyball team, the #5 overall seed in the NAIA Women's Volleyball National Tournament advanced into bracket play of the tournament with a 3-0 (25-21, 25-17, 25-21) win over Southern Oregon University on Friday evening. The V-Hawks improve to 33-4, while the Raiders' season ends at 28-7.

The first set began back-and-forth, with nine ties by when the score reached 9-9. Kenzie Winker led the way with a pair of early kills, while Marissa Kleman and Jada Mitchell combined two blocks. Kenidi McCabe recorded a service error as The V-Hawks built the lead to 13-10, and a Raider error made it 15-11. SOU battled back to tie the match at 20-20 despite a pair of McGrath kills, But Winker added two more kills amongst a variety of Southern Oregon errors for the 25-21 win.

Kleman started the second set with a kill, then two consecutive kills, assisted by McGrath. Grace Rohde then powered the offense with four kills in a 8-2 V-Hawk run. After Maddie Connor snuck a set over the net for a kill, McCabe aced another service prompting a Raider timeout, trailing 18-10. However, multiple service errors prevented SOU from gaining momentum, and Rohde ended to set with a kill, followed by a Mitchell-assisted block, 25-17.

Southern Oregon scored the first four points of the third, but Rohde ended the run and Winker put down four straight kills as the V-Hawks battled back, 9-7. The teams then traded points until Southern Oregon scored three straight for a 13-12 lead. Mitchell sparked VU's response, with two kills before two straight errors required another timeout, with Viterbo ahead 18-14.. Out of the timeout, McGrath put down four more kills, and two more from Mitchell ended the set, 25-21.

Four V-Hawks recorded double digit kills, including Winker with 13, and Mitchell, Rohde and McGrath all at 10. Rohde recorded a double-double with 11 digs, while McCabe led with 17. Cailie Kowal dished 21 assists, and Connor was just behind her with 20 . Kleman recorded six blocks. Hannah Stadstad led the Raiders with 10 kills.

The V-Hawks take on Midland University (Neb.) in the quarterfinals on Saturday, December 2 at 2 PM.