After taking a back-and-forth opening set, the seventh-ranked Hope College volleyball team looked to continue its recent dominance in The Rivalry.

No. 22 Calvin University had other ideas, rallying to win the MIAA Tournament championship match in four sets on Saturday at DeVos Fieldhouse.

The 23-25, 25-14, 25-18, 25-18 victory snapped the Flying Dutch's eight-match winning streak in the series and earned the Knights the MIAA's automatic bid to next week's NCAA Division III National Championships.

Hope, 22-6 overall and the MIAA regular-season champion, is expected to receive an at-large berth when the field is announced Monday, Nov. 17, at 1 p.m. on NCAA.com.

Head coach Becky Schmidt credited the Knights (25-3), the MIAA Tournament champions for the first time since 2022.

"Calvin played extremely well and aggressive with relentless defense," Schmidt said. "Volleyball is a rhythmic game, and any time you can get a team out of rhythm, you are in the driver's seat. They hit at the extension of our defense, and when we got stressed, we didn't respond like we needed to. That is what needs to happen at this point of the season, knowing we can go into the NCAA Tournament."

The Knights outhit Hope .241 to .114 and served nine aces to the Flying Dutch's three.

Emma Ekblow and Sarah Bradley shared match-high honors with 14 kills. Ekblow also recorded a match-high seven blocks and served a match-high three aces.

The Flying Dutch received 32 assists from senior Lauren Lee (Plymouth, Michigan / Skyline) on a record-setting night.

Lee became the first Hope setter to reach 5,000 career assists, totaling a school-record 5,018.

Junior Kamryn Burbridge (Grand Haven, Michigan / Grand Haven) and sophomore Olivia Wyma (Hartland, Wisconsin / Arrowhead) collected 11 and 10 kills, respectively, for the Flying Dutch.