CEDARVILLE, Ohio - On Thursday, the Great Midwest Athletic Conference’s 2014 Volleyball Championships began with the quarterfinal round. In the evenings first match, #3 Ursuline College advanced past #6 Alderson Broaddus in four games in what a tremendous match to get the tournament started.

URSULINE 3, ALDERSON BROADDUS 1

In the first game, Ursuline took an early 13-6 lead, but AB bounced back to tie the game at 19-19. From the point on it went back and forth before the Arrows pulled out a 27-25 win in the first game. In game two, Alderson Broaddus held leads of 11-8 and 19-16, but Ursuline kept it close and eventually rallied to take a 2-0 lead with the 25-22 win.

In the third game, AB once again held the games largest lead at three points, coming at 9-6, but Ursuline grabbed another late lead and was actually serving for the match at 24-23. However, this time the Battlers wouldn’t go away and rallied to take game three, 26-24. In the fourth and final game, Ursuline came out strong grabbing a 11-4 lead and found a way to controll the game throughout, closing out the Battlers 25-14 to advance into the semifinals.

Ursuline was led by the trio of Emily Adkinson, Abbie Fabo, and Makayla Windau, who all each had a team-high 12 kills. Fabo also had a match-high 19 digs, while Molly Hilfinger led the Arrows with 37 assists. For Alderson Broaddus, Caitlin Cain had a match-high 16 kills, while teammate Megan Christmann chipped in 15. Lauren Hogan led the way with a match-high 19 digs, while Cain recorded a double-double with 15 digs to go with her 16 kills. Kayla Peterson had a match-high 46 assists in the loss.

In trying to identify the glaring difference in this match was difficult, but it really came from the Battlers 32 attack errors compared to just 13 for Ursuline, and then 13 blocks for Ursuline at the net compared to three for AB.

Ursuline will advance to the semifinals where it will meet the #2 seed Ohio Valley University. During the regular season the two teams split with each team winning on the road. Ursuline won the first meeting 3-1 at OVU, while later in the season Ursuline fell at home to OVU, 3-2.

The two teams will face off in the first of two semifinal games tomorrow, starting at 4:00 p.m. (eastern).

KENTUCKY WESLEYAN 3, TREVECCA 0

In the second quarterfinal of the evening, #4 Kentucky Wesleyan put up an impressive performance, pushing past #5 Trevecca in three games. For the Panthers, it was the third straight win for them over the Trojans this season.

In the first two games, Kentucky Wesleyan was able to build early leads and finished each game with an identical 25-16 score to take a 2-0 lead in the match. In the third game, the Panthers took an early three points lead and held that margin for a majority of the game, before taking control late and ending the match with a 25-?? win in game three.

For the Panthers, Summer Alford led the way with a double-double, recording a team-high 10 kills and a match-high 19 digs. Dallas Zimmerman had nine kills, while Hannah Hudnall had 16 digs. Chelsea Brothers led the match with four blocks. For Trevecca, Katelyn Atkinson had seven kills, while Loren Bennett and Kayleigh Jarrett each had double-digit digs with 10 and 11 respectively.

Kentucky Wesleyan will advance to the semifinals where it will take on the top seed and host, Cedarville University. During the regular season, Cedarville won the first meeting in Owensboro in three games, but needed five games at home to sweep the regular-season series. The Panthers and Yellow Jackets will compete in the second semifinal game tomorrow. The match is scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. (eastern).

All G-MAC Championship games will be broadcast live with video, audio, and stats - courtesy of Cedarville University. Follow the action on the G-MAC Volleyball Championship Page.