CEDARVILLE, Ohio - In the inaugural Great Midwest Athletic Conference Volleyball Championship final, top seed and host Cedarville University claimed the first-ever title with its 3-1 victory over #2 seed Trevecca Nazarene University. The four-set match played out in dramatic fashion with a final line of 25-17, 24-26, 25-16, 25-13.
In the first game, TNU got off to a very slow start as Cedarville jumped out to 8-1 lead, which basically was the difference in the final score of the first set. The Trojans rebounded in the second set and battled point for point as it took extra time (26-24) to pull the match even at a game apiece. The set two loss was only the third set all season in conference that the Lady Jackets dropped, two of the three to that point coming to the Trojans.
In the third game, Cedarville grabbed an early 9-4 advantage, capped by a Stephanie Rogers kill, and the Lady Jackets continued to dominate the game pushing the score to 2-1 after three games with the 25-16 win in game three.
With their backs against a wall and needing to win game four to push the match to five sets, Trevecca Nazarene again battled point-for-point, but CU held a slim 8-7 advantage early. The Lady Jackets pushed their lead to 16-8 and never looked back, winning the set 25-13.
Cedarville closed out the contest in four games and claimed the first-ever G-MAC Volleyball Championship. Leading the way for the Lady Jackets was Rogers, who had a match-high 17 kills, while Hannah Wagner and Lori Inkrott joined her in double figures with 13 and 10 kills respectively.
Maddie Anderson contributed to the attack with 29 assists, and defensively Amanda Bell and Inkrott had a combined 20 digs.
For the Trojans, G-MAC Player of the Year recorded her sixth triple-double in her last seven contests and her 17th of the season with 14 kills, 15 assists, and 10 digs. Jenna Robertson joined Johnson in double-figure kills with 10, to go with a pair of solo-blocks.
It is the Yellow Jackets third G-MAC title in 2012, after winning the Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Championships in October. For Trevecca, who earned the Women’s Soccer Championship two weeks ago, it is also the Universities third runner-up performance (men’s and women’s cross country).