Box Score by Dena Meiste
The Hope College women's volleyball team, the reigning MIAA regular-season champions, opened postseason action tonight inside the DeVos Fieldhouse with a decisive 25-14, 25-19, 25-16 shutout victory over Trine University.
With the win, the Flying Dutch advance to their 19th MIAA Tournament final, where they will once again contend with Calvin University, the tournament's No. 2 seed. Calvin defeated Albion University 3-0 in the tournament's other semifinal.
"It's always a goal to play in the MIAA Tournament championship game," said head coach Becky Schmidt after the match. "It's always a little bit of a grind until we get there. We certainly feel a little of the pressure to be able to get through this game. Trine did some nice things against us. We're excited to make corrections to that and get ready to bring tomorrow night.
"It's going to be great volleyball against Calvin," Schmidt continued. "We're just going to lay it all out on the court."
The rivals square off in Holland at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 6. Hope is 2-0 against Calvin (26-3) this fall, winning both meetings by a 3-2 tally.
The Flying Dutch (23-3) ranked fifth in this week's American Volleyball Coaches Association Poll; Calvin sith.
The Hope defense was rock solid in tonight's semifinal against the Thunder. The front row put up a big block to hit around which yielded an impressive 57-43 advantage in digs.
Hope's offensive attack was well balanced, with senior setter Tracy Westra (Clarendon Hills, Illinois / Timothy Christian), spreading 34 assists to lead her team to a .250 hitting percentage on the night.
The 2021 MIAA Most Valuable Player, Westra, pictured, also put down five kills.
Middle blocker McKenna Otto (Wheaton, Illinois / Wheaton North) led all hitters with 13 kills, while picking up 12 digs on the defensive side for the double-double.
Ana Grunewald (Grand Rapids, Michigan / East Grand Rapids) added eight kills from her post on the outside pin. The senior paced the defense with 13 digs.
"I thought our middle backs played with some good range," commented Schmidt. "They were certainly trying to move our middle backs and get them going. For the most part, we were doing a good job of staying with those balls. We've just got to get in system a little more, get Tracy (Westra) up to the net a little more so we've got her threat as an offensive weapon as well as the threat of the tempo we're able to run when we're in system."
Hope shut the Trine (17-16) offense down in set one, limiting the Thunder to just three kills on 30 attempts. Comparatively, the Dutch converted 18 of their 37 attack attempts into points to cruise in for the 25-14 triumph.
The Dutch came out a little flat to start set two and the Thunder took full advantage, sprinting out to a 6-2 advantage. Although Trine was able to fend off a Hope come-back for a few more rotations, the Dutch eventually rallied to regain control of the frame, taking their first lead at 12-11.
The Thunder held on until, tied at 16-16, Grunewald put away three kills down the stretch to spark a late run and help Hope clinch set two, 25-19.
Trine kept pace with the Dutch in the first half of the third stanza until Grace Pettinger (Mt. Vernon, Iowa / Mt. Vernon) opened her turn at the service line with an ace to set off a 10-0 scoring blitz that put the home side ahead 20-12. Hope sided its way out to the 25-16 win to secure the set and match.
Other point scorers included Rose Thompson (Coopersville, Michigan / Unity Christian) who posted seven kills and Molly Ligon (Beverly Hills, Michigan / Birmingham Seaholm) with a tally of six.
Maggie Wehrmeyer (Holland, Michigan / West Ottawa) collected nine digs in the back row.
