The Hope College volleyball team is back on top — on top of the MIAA, that is.Â
The fourth-ranked Flying Dutch took down Adrian College on Saturday afternoon for a Senior Day victory sweep. The 25-14, 25-19, 25-19 victory closed out the regular season and gave Hope an outright MIAA regular-season championship. The championship title is the 15th in program history.Â
Hope (25-2), which went unbeaten in eight regular-season MIAA matches, looks towards the MIAA Tournament. The Flying Dutch are hosting the semifinals and championship game on Friday-Saturday, Nov. 10-11, at DeVos Fieldhouse as the No. 1 seed.
The field for the six-team MIAA Tournament will be announced on Sunday, Nov. 3.
"It's a really big deal," said head coach Becky Schmidt of the MIAA title. "It's a big deal because our league has been so competitive over the last 25 years, those teams that are winning the league conference title are really good teams. They have to be really good teams in order to do that."
"This is one of the things that we knew we were capable of being able to do, we had to go through it and do it. There is a lot of adversity that this team has been through this season and the way that they've weathered that and found ways to be able to step up, and the adjustments that we've had to make, I'm very proud of them."
Before the match, Hope honored its lone senior: Olivia Fiebing (Traverse City, Michigan / Central).Â
"She has stepped up, she has worked incredibly hard, and she has improved not only in her technique, but in her toughness," said Schmidt of Fiebing.Â
Sophomore Lauren Lee (Plymouth, Michigan / Skyline HS) delivered a match-high 34 assists in the win.Â
Junior Samantha Seib (Elkhorn, Wisconsin / Catholic Central) led the defense with 15 digs, while junior Addie VanderWeide tallied 11 digs. Seib had a match-high three service aces.Â
VanderWeide (Grand Rapids, Michigan / Grand Rapids Christian) also put forth a match-high 13 kills for Hope.Â
Freshman Kamryn Burbridge (Grand Haven, Michigan / Grand Haven) chipped in 11 digs.
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