CEDARVILLE, Ohio - The 2014 Great Midwest Athletic Conference Volleyball Championships continued on Friday in Cedarville with the top two seeds seeing their first action after earning a bye into the semifinals. In the first match, #2 Ohio Valley took care of #3 Ursuline in three games to advance to the championship match. The finals become clear following the second match, which Cedarville swept Kentucky Wesleyan in an exciting finish.

OHIO VALLEY 3, URSULINE 0

Ursuline, who advanced to the semifinals with a win over Alderson Broaddus on Thursday night, battled point-for-point with Ohio Valley in the first game. The score was back and forth all the way up to 22-22 before the Fighting Scots captured the first game, 25-23.

In the second game, the two teams never gained more than a two point lead through 17-16 on the scoreboard. At that point through the rest of the match, OVU controlled the action, closing out game two 25-17 and then winning game three 25-13.  

Leading the way for Ohio Valley, G-MAC Volleyball Player of the Year had a match-high 19 kills and a .457 hitting percentage. Imani Ward chipped in 11 kills, while Jessica Simpson had 40 assists, nine digs, two service aces and two blocks. Megan Morrison had a match-high 20 digs.

For Ursuline Abbie Fabo had 10 kills, while Sammi Marcum had 12 digs.

CEDARVILLE 3, KENTUCKY WESLEYAN 0

In the second semifinal, Cedarville swept the Panthers 25-20, 25-21, and 25-23 in an exciting finish that featured a come-from-behind win in the third game in front of the capacity home fan base.

For Cedaville, Abby Shelton led the way with a match-high 12 kills, while Amanda Bell had nine and Hannah Wagner seven. Maddie Ledbetter and Kristin Cardwell worked together to total 31 assists (18 and 13 respectively) and Bell and Angela Becker had 20 and 19 digs. As a team, Cedarville recorded 16 block assists to just six from KWC, as Rachel Krikke had six alone for the Yellow Jackets.

For the Panthers, Rae Garvison and Nikki Jenkins each had eight kills, while Dallas Zimmerman and Summer Alford had seven each. Sarah Swenson had 27 assists and Hannah Hudnall’s 19 digs and Tori Owens 18 digs led the defensive effort.

Ohio Valley will advance to the Championship Finals on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. and will face Cedarville. During the regular season Cedarville swept Ohio Valley at home 25-18, 25-10, 25-19. In the match Shelton led there as well with 12 kills, while nine players recorded at least one kills for the Yellow Jackets.