Pirates Finish in Third Place at SCAC Tournament: Receive Bid to National Tournament

Nov. 9, 2008

Southwestern University volleyball finished third in the SCAC conference tournament held at Rhodes College this weekend.

The top-seeded Pirates started the tournament strong, easily handling Hendrix (14-27) in the first round match on Friday night. Leading the way were Christina Nicholls with 31 assists and Danielle Bochat with 8 digs.

With the win, the Pirates advanced to the semi-final round where they would meet DePauw (24-14). After dropping the first set 23-25, SU rallied back to take the second and third sets 25-19. Match number 4 found the usually dynamic SU offense stifled and they lost the set 13-25 thus sending the contest into a fifth game. Set five was highly contested, but DePauw found a way to take it 10-15.

Southwestern University tallied 70 team digs in the loss and Audra Genty led all Pirates with 17 kills.

The loss sent SU to the consolation game against Colorado College. True to form, the Pirates dominated Colorado College in 3 games (25-17, 25-14, and 25-11). Southwestern was lead in kills by Danielle Bochat with 13, followed by Lauren Brown who recorded 10. Defensively, the Pirates were impressive with Samantha Lingamfelter leading the way with 12 digs followed closely by Danielle Bochat with 10.

Despite the disappointing outcome, the Pirates will continue on to the NCAA tournament. They will battle the University of Texas at Dallas on Thursday, November 13th at 4:30 p.m. The game will be held at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.