ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – In an entertaining match with countless back-and-forth punches thrown, Findlay’s Madison Moore dealt the final blow to beat out Hillsdale in the NCAA Championship Midwest Regional on Thursday, 3-2 (25-23, 16-25, 22-25, 25-22, 16-14).
Moore stuck a paw up to record one of her six blocks and put the exclamation point on a wild rally for match point as the No. 7 seed Oilers pulled off the opening-round upset against the second-seeded Chargers.
The two Great Midwest Athletic Conference West Division powers were meeting for the fourth time this season. It wasn’t a matter of questioning if the league could advance a team in the second round of the Midwest Regional, but who, after learning of the opening-round draw.
Hillsdale brought down Findlay to win the Great Midwest Championship and swept the Oilers to conclude the regular season. But the Oilers proved resilient to record their second five-set victory of the season over their respected rival.
Findlay (28-6 overall) advances to the second round of the NCAA Midwest Regional to face No. 3 seed Rockhurst from the Great Lakes Valley Conference. Start time at Lewis University’s Neil Carey Arena is set for 6 p.m. ET with coverage on the GLVC Sports Network.
Rockhurst beat No. 6 Bellarmine earlier in the afternoon, the first of four first-round matchups at top-seeded Lewis.
The Chargers (28-4 overall) had their conference record 21-match win streak come to a conclusion with the defeat.
All-conference stars and all-region nominees filled both sides of the floor as coaches Chris Gravel (Hillsdale) and Wick Colchagoff (Findlay) squared off in another chess match. The five-set thriller lasted a full two hours as each team fought for momentum.
Hillsdale was up 2-1 and appeared to have the Oilers on the ropes.
In the fifth set, Findlay grabbed an 8-7 lead before the teams switched sides. Points were extremely hard to come by for either side as a Chargers’ block knotted things up at 13-13.
All-region and first team all-conference outside hitter Amanda Winner gave the Oilers a 14-13 edge with a kill, but Hillsdale’s two-time West Division Player of the Week and G-MAC Championship standout Jackie Langer countered with a kill to make things all square again.
The Oilers went right back to Winner with the go-ahead point and one of the most memorable volleys of the match had players leaving it all on the floor as the Oilers ultimately prevailed.
Findlay’s Izzy Murphy recorded a career-high 19 kills to tie for the team lead with Winner. Libero Kara Scherger had 27 digs while junior setter Hailee Olson dished out 52 assists while directing the offense.
Hillsdale was led by 19 kills from Kara Vyletel while freshman middle Allyssa Van Wienen added a dozen and Langer closed out her career with 11 and 18 digs. Great Midwest Player of the Year Paige VanderWall was one kill shy of a double-double (9 kills/12 digs) while Great Midwest/AVCA Midwest Region Freshman of the Year Lindsey Mertz had 54 assists.