V-Hawks Season Ends in National Semifinal

SIOUX CITY, Iowa – The Viterbo University Women's Volleyball team, the No. 5 overall seed in the NAIA National Tournament, had their 2023 season come to an end on Monday night following a 3-1 (22-25, 17-25, 27-25, 19-25) loss No. 1 Northwestern College. The V-Hawks end with a 34-5 record, while the Red Raiders go on to play in the National Championship.

Jada Mitchell scored the first point of the match, but after two kills by Martina McGrath, the V-Hawks trailed 6-7. NWC responded with a 7-1 run until Mitchell's kill ended it. Kenzie Winker scored five points in a row for the V-Hawks with three kills and two aces, and Viterbo closed the deficit to 21-19. However, even after tow consecutive kills by Grace Rohde, the Red Raiders would take the first, 25-22.

Rohde started the second with a kill as well, but after a Marissa Kleman-Mitcehll block, Northwestern stormed back to take a 6-3 lead. Mitchell's kill sparked a V-Hawks response that included a McGrath kill and Sadie Treptow-assisted block and a 9-7 lead. The teams traded runs, with the V-Hawks offense being led by McGrath and Rohde, and a Maddie Connor ace, but NWC put together the final run, scoring eight of the last 10 in the set and winning 25-17.

The Red Raiders jumped out to another lead in the third, 6-2, before a 7-2 run from Viterbo fueled by two McGrath kills and a Cailie Kowal service ace. A pair of blocks, one Rohde and McGrath, another Mitchell and Grace Peyron, gave the V-Hawks the 13-10 lead and forced an NWC timeout. The Raiders went on an 8-1 run out of the timeout, but the V-Hawks did not back down, outscoring Northwestern, 9-3. On match point for NWC, McGrath put down a kill, and Rohde posted the final two in a row for the 27-25 win.

Viterbo would be the ones to jump out to large lead in the fourth, with three kills from Winker helping build a 6-2 lead. The teams traded runs again as NWC went up 8-7, but Viterbo retaliated to go up 15-9 on a run highlighted by two McGrath kills, one assisted by Rohde and another by Peyron, and three Rohde kills. Northwestern did not back down, as they went back up 19-17. A service error out of a timeout ended the run, but the Red Raiders used the momentum to complete the win, 25-19.

McGrath and Winker each posted match-high 17 kills, while Rohde added 14. Kowal dished a match-high 26 assists, while Connor had 21. McCabe reached 24 digs, and Rohde and Winker posted double-doubles recording 11 and 13 digs, respectively. McGrath also had five blocks. Jazlin De Haan had 19 kills and 10 digs, Logan Miller and Liv Reitsma both recorded 22 assists, Olivia Granstra had 23 digs, and Zavyr Metzger contributed 10 blocks.

Kenzie Winker ends her career with 1,981 kills, the third most in Viterbo history, 1,228 digs, leading the 1,000 kill-1,000 digs club in both categories, and 649 sets played, the second most,

This was the V-Hawks sixth trip to the national semifinal, their 11^th trip to the National tournament, 10^th in a row, and their 16^th 30-win season.

The Championship match will take place on Tuesday night at 7 PM.