(Story courtesy of Colorado College Athletics)
ATLANTA, Ga. -- The Colorado College volleyball team earned the program’s fifth trip to a regional championship match with a convincing 25-20, 25-17, 25-18 victory over Berry College in a semifinal match on Saturday afternoon.
The Tigers will face Emory University, which defeated Transylvania University 25-21, 21-25, 25-21, 25-20 in Sunday’s championship match for the right to advance to the national quarterfinals which will be played on Thursday, Nov. 21, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Senior middle hitter Marguerite Spaethling led the Tigers with 10 kills, hitting .364 on 22 attempts with only two errors.
Georgia Mullins was a force on both sides of the net, producing seven kills on an error-free 16 swings and getting a hand in three of CC’s seven blocked shots.
Her .438 attack percentage marked the 14th time this season the sophomore middle hitter hit .400 or better in a match. She hit .471 in yesterday’s first-round sweep of Whitworth University.
Senior setter Lizzy Counts dished out 25 assists and led the Tigers with 12 digs. She also won a pair of jousts at the net against the Vikings’ middle blockers for two of her three blocks.
One big run proved to be the difference in each set for Colorado College.
After Berry pulled to within 18-17 in the first set, a Mullins kill ignited a 5-0 run that put the Tigers in command with a 23-17 lead. Spaethling put down kills on all five of her swings in the frame.
In the second set, CC snapped a 10-10 tie with an Allie Freeburg kill and went on to score six of the next seven points to build a six-point cushion.
The Tigers utilized a 10-3 barrage in the third set to open a commanding 16-9 lead. The Vikings trimmed their deficit to three, only to see Colorado College score the next three points to re-claim the momentum.
CC closed out the match with senior outside hitter Jordan Mullen’s kill from the back row, her seventh of the match.
