Women's Volleyball | 11/11/2021 8:02:00 PM
GRAND RAPIDS, MI – The St. John Fisher College women's volleyball team had its historic season come to an end on Thursday night as the Cardinals fell to the Wittenberg University Tigers in three sets (21-25, 19-25, 23-25) sets in the opening round of the NCAA Division III Championship inside Van Noord Arena on the campus of Calvin University. With the defeat, Fisher moved to 26-5 while the Tigers, who are receiving votes in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association national poll, improved to 22-8 and advanced to the Second Round where they will take on the winner of No. 5 Calvin and Penn State Behrend on Friday evening.
Delayne Young led the way for Fisher with 10 kills to go along with two digs and a block while Lindsey DeBonis finished with nine kills and eight digs over three frames. Alea Steigerwald closed out her historic career with seven kills and nine digs for Fisher while Sydney French hammered home six kills in all. Katie Leaty handed out 28 assists paired with eight digs and Julia Halsey contributed seven digs at the libero position.
After falling in each of the first two sets, Fisher looked to cut into the Tigers' lead in the third frame as the Cardinals jumped out to an early 9-7 lead following back-to-back kills from Young and DeBonis. Leading by a small margin, the Cardinals forced Wittenberg to use one of its two timeouts after rattling off five unanswered points including two kills from French to hold a 14-9 edge.
The break in action allowed Wittenberg to reset as the Tigers countered Fisher's hot hitting with five of the set's next six points to pull to within one, 15-14. From there, Wittenberg regained control and forced Fisher into a timeout as the Tigers forged ahead, 18-17.
Trailing by just a point late in the frame, Fisher captured the momentum as an error by Wittenberg followed by an ace at the service line from Leaty sparked a string of four consecutive points for Fisher to make it 21-18 as the Tigers called their last timeout to regroup.
Facing a three-point gap, Wittenberg found a rhythm and closed out the set and the match with a 7-2 burst to end Fisher's chase for its first win in NCAA action.
The Cardinals finished the 2021 campaign with numerous accolades and accomplishments as the team earned its third Empire 8 Championship in a row. In all, five were named All-Conference by the league including Steigerwald who was named the Empire 8 Player of the Year for the fourth year in a row. Head coach
Kelly Greapentrog, along with assistant coach
Nicksen Sivongsa, were named the Empire 8 Coaching Staff of the Year for the third consecutive season after leading the Cardinals to an 8-0 mark in the conference standings. Fisher's 26 wins marked its highest total since going 27-14 in 1997 while its .839 winning percentage was its best output in a complete season dating back to 1990 when the Cardinals went 42-3 (.933).