MARION, Ind. – The #3 Indiana Wesleyan Volleyball came out on top in a five-set thriller to claim the 2019 Crossroads League Tournament Championship over #12 Marian University on Saturday evening at Luckey Arena.
After taking an early two-set lead, the Wildcats surrendered the next two to the Knights. In the fifth set, Marian took a 9-5 lead before Indiana Wesleyan mounted a comeback to win 15-12.
With the victory, IWU will have a #1 seed in the National Tournament for the first time in program history. The Wildcats take a 34-1 record into the National Tournament and the Kinghts enter with a 31-2 record.
INSIDE THE BOX
- Ana Collarled the Wildcats with 19 kills while tallying a .405 hitting percentage.
- Indiana Wesleyan also recorded 10 blocks in the contest with Rachel Klitzingleading the team with five.
- Havyn Gatesdug a team-high 36 balls with Collar adding 29 digs.
- Klitzing also tallied 16 kills with Kelly Millerhaving 14 and Allison Sparrow adding 10.
- Alex Falconeset a new career-high with 64 assists in the game.
CROSSROADS LEAGUE HISTORY
- Indiana Wesleyan has won three of the last five Crossroads League Volleyball Tournaments in years 2019, 2017 and 2016.
- Since 2012 IWU has won six Crossroads League Volleyball Tournament Championships.
MOATS QUOTE
- We talked about playing for the applause of God, and the girls were just playing for him.
- In the last timeout, we talked about playing for Him and not worrying about what the scoreboard said. We were playing like we had the lead.
- We tried to conceal number seven to block their plan of attack.
- The win keeps us in a really good seeding, which will give us the first #1 seeding in program history. It puts us in a good position to make the single-elimination tournament which was our goal from the beginning of the year.
FALCONE AND K. MILLER PERSPECTIVE
- Everyone loves each other very well. This year has been different and we have stayed together no matter what.
- Havyn grabbed me at one point and told me ‘you’re going to stand back here’, and to have a freshman say that to a senior shows how ready the underclassmen are to take over.
NEXT TIME OUT
- Indiana Wesleyan finds out its tournament seeding for the NAIA National Tournament on Monday at 11:00 a.m.