The Hope College volleyball team punched its ticket to the NCAA Division III national quarterfinal with a five-set thriller over rival and No. 3-ranked Calvin University on Saturday.
The Flying Dutch completed their weekend by taking down their third Top 10 team in as many days to claim the Regional Championship title. This is Hope's third trip to the National quarterfinals and first since winning the national title in 2014.
The 20th-ranked Flying Dutch (24-7) head to Duquesne University's UPMC Cooper Field House in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for the national quarterfinals on Wednesday, November 16, at a time to be announced. It is the same facility where the Hope women's basketball team claimed a third national title in March.
"We knew that tonight was going to be a dogfight, and it was," said head coach Becky Schmidt. "I'm really impressed with our team and with how assertive we were from the service line and how we didn't back down from the net."
Hope struck early, winning the first set. Set two went to the Knights in a 25-16 showdown, but the orange and blue struck back to win set three in an almost identical score of the second set, 25-17.
The first set win was highlighted by multiple digs from junior Olivia Fiebing (Traverse City, Michigan / Central) to keep Calvin at bay, along with the combination of good-timed blocks from senior Charlotte Brecht (Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan / Grosse Pointe South) and key kills from senior Jenna Core (Spring Lake, Michigan / Spring Lake).
The atmosphere in Van Noord Arena intensified the match, where Hope fed off their traveling fans to take an early 7-1 lead to start set three. Hope continued on to a ten point lead over Calvin, 14-4, before the Knights dug their way out to cut Hope's lead to just four.
A string of service aces from sophomore Grace Marshall (DeWitt, Michigan / DeWitt) advanced the Flying Dutch's lead to eight. Calvin had answers, but not enough, as Hope would feed off the momentum they had to secure the win, and take a 2-1 lead in the match.
The rivals went back and forth multiple times with twelve ties in the fourth set and the lead for either team was never higher than three. The Knights would force a fifth set with an exhilarating 25-23 fourth set win on their home court.
The team of Brecht and sophomore Alison DeWeerd (Kentwood, Michigan / South Christian) executed key blocks to help Hope get out to a 5-2 lead to get their fans into a frenzy. The Flying Dutch climbed to a six point spread before Calvin strung together a rally and tied the game at 10.
A race to the 15th point, Hope battled through with the help of a service ace from freshman Lauren Lee (Plymouth, Michigan / Skyline), along with the match point kill from senior Emma Post (Hudsonville, Michigan / Hudsonville) to send them to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as the Regional Champions.
The Flying Dutch were led offensively by Core with 18 kills, while Post and sophomore Annie Lockett (Mason, Ohio / William Mason) had 15 and 13 kills, respectively.
Lee, who was named the Regional Tournament MVP, tallied 49 assists in the five-set win. Marshall led Hope in both service aces, 6, and digs with 22.
Lockett and Post were also named to the Regional All-Tournament team.
