Championship Bracket (PDF)
Official Championship Page
INDIANAPOLIS – With seasons hanging in the balance, eight teams put it all on the line in the quarterfinals of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Volleyball Championship on Tuesday evening at various campus sites.
As the night played out, the top four seeds in the tournament bracket, No. 1 Hillsdale, No. 2 Tiffin, No. 3 Walsh and No. 4 Kentucky Wesleyan, all advanced.
Out of all four matches, no contest was a straight sweep. The home crowds turned out in their respective gyms to contribute to a great championship environment.
But it was evident home court advantage for the playoffs played a factor as the conference championship tournament bracket resumes on Friday with the semifinals inside Hillsdale’s Dawn Tibbetts Potter Arena.
The conference championship banquet with the announcement of the all-conference team and individual award winners will also be conducted on Thursday at Hillsdale.
The Chargers are hosting the conference tournament for the third consecutive season. Since HC has joined the conference, no other team has been able to dethrone the Chargers as regular season or tournament champions.
Tiffin was the first match to finish in Tuesday’s opening-round contests and the Dragons moved past their first-round demons from a year ago. This time, Tiffin defeated No. 7 Findlay, a program that has been in the NCAA tourney and a conference championship finalist the past two years.
The Dragons went to their star early and often, setting up all-region and all-conference senior Jenna Huffman for 70 attack attempts. She responded with a rare 20-20 line in the box score with 21 kills and 20 digs.
Malone, the No. 8 seed, has made the conference tournament in men’s soccer, women’s soccer and is sending two individuals to cross country nationals, in addition to making the volleyball postseason.
The Pioneers played the No. 11 team in the country and No. 2 program in the Midwest Region, very, very tough. Malone was ahead late in the first set against Hillsdale before the Chargers dug deep to win 28-26. Facing a 2-0 deficit, Malone didn’t go quietly into the night, winning the third set 25-23 before the Chargers gave head coach Chris Gravel his 500th career win.
It was a dramatic finish in North Canton as No. 6 Trevecca Nazarene, making its first playoff appearance in the first try under head coach Emily Moore, pushed No. 3 Walsh down to the wire in Alumni Arena.
This one went down to the fifth and final set as TNU’s young program made an impressive stand on the road. Both teams went back and forth before Alexis Gilland scored three straight Walsh points to break a 9-9 tie in the fifth set.
Gilland would finish with a match-high 22 kills to counter a combined 29 by Austyn Baldwin and Ellie Buffler on the Trojans.
Kentucky Wesleyan packed them in at Jones Gym in the No. 4/5 matchup against Cedarville. The Panthers defeated the Yellow Jackets for the second time in less than two weeks to earn a semifinal berth.
After winning 2 of 3 at the Midwest Region Crossover, the Panthers went 5-2 in the latter half of the conference schedule. Jaylen McEwen had a team-high 11 kills and 24 digs as the KWC defense held Cedarville to a .014 hitting percentage.
Hillsdale will now face Kentucky Wesleyan on Friday in the semifinals at 5 p.m. ET while Tiffin and Walsh will clash at 7:30 p.m. ET. The championship match is scheduled for Saturday afternoon at 5 p.m. ET.
All remaining matches will be streamed live on the Great Midwest Digital Network.