On Friday, the Great Midwest Athletic Conference will host its first-ever Volleyball Conference Championship Tournament games, as the 2012 Volleyball Championships begin at Cedarville University with a opening round match-up between #5 seed Central State University and #4 seed Ursuline College. The winner will advance to the semifinals and face #1 seed and host Cedarville University following the tournaments other semifinal match between #3 seed Urbana University and #2 seed Trevecca Nazarene University.

Championship Schedule

First Round - Friday, November 16, 2012 - 2:00 PM (Eastern) - live stats available
#5 Central State University (color uniforms) vs. #4 Ursuline College (white uniforms)

NOTE: All-Conference Honors & Individual Awards will be presented prior to Semifinal #1 (approx. 4:00 PM)

Semifinal #1 - Friday, November 16, 2012 - 5:00 PM (Eastern) - live video, audio, and stats available
#3 Urbana University (color uniforms) vs. #2 Trevecca Nazarene University (white uniforms)

Semifinal #2 - Friday, November 16, 2012 - 7:30 PM (Eastern) - live video, audio, and stats available
Central State/Ursuline (color uniforms) vs. #1 Cedarville University (white uniforms)

Championships - Saturday, November 17, 2012 - 1:00 PM (Eastern) - live video, audio, and stats available
Semifinal #1 vs. Semifinal #2 (top remaining seed will be home team and wear white uniforms)

Championship Preview

With an undefeated regular-season, Cedarville University (30-6 overall and 8-0 in conference) earned the top seed and the right to host the inaugural G-MAC Volleyball Championship. The Yellow Jackets are the heavy favorite as in eight conference contests this season, they won six of the eight matches by a 3-0 score and overall lost just two sets out of 26 played in conference. In fact, Cedarville won 18 of its 30 matches by a 3-0 score

CU will be led by a solid rotation of talent, including plenty of depth. Hannah Wagner, a three-time G-MAC Athlete of the Week, is tied for second in hitting percentage (.303) and ranks third in both kills per game (3.01) and blocks per game (0.73).

The depth of talent provides Cedarville the option for multiple players to step up and lead the team. In fact, the Yellow Jackets as a team rank first in hitting percentage (.207), assists per game (11.95), kills per game (12.80), blocks per game (1.87), and service aces per game (2.32).

Stephanie Rogers leads the conference in hitting with a percentage of .313, and she ranks second with 0.76 blocks per game, but is first overall with 94 total blocks. Her per game average is second, one spot ahead of teammate Wagner, and one spot behind teammate Tori Thompson (0.81). CU also holds the top three individual spots in service aces: Maddie Anderson is first with 0.61 per game, Kara Yutzy is second with 0.39, and Lori Inkrott is third with 0.38.

Cedarville’s biggest competition is most likely to come from Trevecca Nazarene University, who was able to steal a game from Cedarville in the final weekend of the regular season. The game was tight throughout with a match score of 25-23, 25-21, 19-25, 25-23 in favor of Cedarville.

In the first match between the two teams, Cedarville won 3-0 in a dominating performance (25-23, 25-8, 25-17). However, since that match, TNU is 8-4 with five wins by 3-0 and in each loss they won at least one game. The Trojans are led by their all-around leader, Kristen Johnson, who is a four-time G-MAC Athlete of the Week.

On the season, Johnson has recorded 15 triple-doubles, including in four in her last five contest. In the teams final match against Cedarville, Johnson recorded 16 kills, 14 assists, and 13 digs. She leads the team in kills (3.0 per game), while ranking second on her team in assists and hitting percentage, and she even ranks third on the team in blocks.

In the conference ranks, Johnson is the only player to rank in the top-ten in five of the six categories, though she does rank in the top ten in all six categories based on her totals rather than per game averages. She ranks fourth in hitting (.252); fourth in kills (3.0), but is second with 387 overall kills;  sixth in assists (4.06), seventh in blocks (0.49), and eighth in digs (2.83). Her 0.25 service aces per game are just outside the top-ten, but her 32 service aces overall are better than four of the current top ten.

As a team, TNU ranks second in every category behind Cedarville, except in blocks where they rank third behind Cedarville and Ursuline, and in digs, which they do rank second, but behind Ursuline again.

Of course, the semifinal match between TNU and #3 seed Urbana is not a given as the two teams split the regular season and tied in the standings with a 5-3 record. Trevecca earned the higher seed through tiebreakers, but Urbana has the ability to advance into the finals.

Urbana is led by the conferences leader in kills, Kelsey Volkmer, who had 4.09 kills per game and 417 kills total, 30 kills more than the second leading total. Volkmer is a two-time G-MAC Athlete of the Week and will pair up with Mary Hendricks, who was the conferences leader in assists. Her 680 assists was third overall in total, but she managed to record a conference best 7.08 assists per game after playing in only 96 games compared to the conference average of around 120.

Ursuline and Central State will battle in the first round for the right to play Cedarville in the semifinals. During the regular season Ursuline defeated Central State 3-0 in both contests. However, Ursuline won just one set in the other six matches - coming in the first set of its 3-1 loss to Cedarville.

Alex Leister, who was named G-MAC Athlete of the Week in the third week of the regular season, led the Arrows in hitting, kills, and service aces, and was second in digs. She was second in the conference in kills per game (3.18), fourth in digs per game (3.69), and sixth in service aces (0.30 per game).

Central State will look to Brein Babbs, who was seventh in assists per game in the conference (3.14), and Erin McKnight, who was sixth in the conference in kills per game (2.36).

Championship Information

LIVE STREAMING AND STATS:

Live stats will be provide for all three matches on Friday and the Championship game on Saturday. Live streaming will be provided, courtesy of Cedarville, for both semifinal matches on Friday and the Championship game on Saturday. Streaming video can be viewed at G-MACsports.com. You can access the broadcast portal (contains live stats as well) by clicking on the Live Streaming button on the main page, or the Live Broadcast link under the Multimedia tab in the main drop down menu

TICKET INFORMATION:

Children/Students - $1.00
Adults - $5.00
Seniors - $3.00
Children 5 years old and under admitted free.

All prices are Per Day and ALL FANS must purchase a ticket - NO team pass list.
Yellow Jacket ticket office and doors will open at least 45 minutes before the first match.
No artificial noisemakers are permitted during competition. Signs, placards, or banners that are insulting, offensive, or clearly in poor taste will be removed from the event.

DIRECTIONS TO CEDARVILLE:

From the North - I-75 south to I-70 east; travel approximately 24 miles to the Springfield/Cedarville exit (Rt. 72); travel south 11 miles on Rt. 72 to the campus. (Approx 38 minutes from downtown Dayton.)

From the South - I-75 north to Cincinnati; merge with I-71 north to the Sabina/Jamestown exit 58 (Rt. 72); follow Rt. 72 north to Cedarville. Proceed through Cedarville three blocks to the campus. (Approximately 1 hour 17 minutes from downtown Cincinnati.)

From the East - I-70 west to the Cedarville/Springfield exit 54 (Rt. 72); travel south 11 miles on Rt. 72 to the campus. (Approximately one hour from downtown Columbus.)

From the West - I-70 east to the Cedarville/Springfield exit 54 (Rt. 72); travel south 11 miles on Rt. 72 to the campus.

From US-35 - US-35 through Xenia; Rt. 42 (north) to 72 (north) which is Main Street. Proceed through Cedarville, three blocks to the campus.