Box Score

MASON, Ohio – The Trevecca Nazarene University Volleyball team (20-11) won the 2015 Great Midwest Athletic Conference Championship (G-MAC) and earned the G-MAC's automatic bid to the 2015 NCAA Division II Midwest Regional. Trevecca defeated Cedarville University (19-15) 25-20, 25-11, 25-19 at Mason Arena.

  

This was the 11th meeting between Trevecca and Cedarville in volleyball. The Yellow Jackets had won eight of the last nine. Trevecca is now 3-8 all-time against the Jackets.

 

WATCH POSTGAME: Loren Bennett (SR/Ooltewah, TN)p; Katelyn Atkinson (JR/Hermitage, TN)

Semifinal: Alex Reuter (FR/Brentwood, TN) Quarterfinals: Clare Taylor (FR/Milan, TN)

 

WATCH CHAMPIONSHIP AGAIN: Trevecca vs. Cedarville

 

2015 G-MAC CHAMPIONSHIP HOME PAGE

 

Trevecca head coach Jayme Crowley stated, "This is an amazing group. From the players and coaches to the support team. We went out and played the way we believed we could and beat an incredible team and program. We talked about one day building a program like Cedarville."

 

"We have at least come far enough that we can now compete with them. It isn't over because they have proven the test of time and are not going anywhere, but it is nice to feel like we belong on the court and when we play well, be able to win."

 

The first set was tight with Cedarville leading 11-10. Trevecca produced a match changing 7-2 run that put them ahead 17-13. Trevecca never trailed again and won 25-20. Katelyn Atkinson had eight kills in the set and Loren Bennett had 16 assists. The Trojans hit .277 with 18 kills.

 

Allison Boe (SR/Murrieta, CA) started the second set on serve and pushed the Trojans ahead quickly with six straight points on serve and a 6-0 TNU lead. The Trojans led 9-2 and later 15-7 before Ashleigh Lozier (SO/Murfreesboro, TN)ved three straight points for a 22-10 Trojan lead. The Trojans finished off the Jackets 25-11 for a 2-0 set lead. Clare Taylor had six kills and five digs in the set. The Trojans hit for .300 with 14 kills in the second set.

 

Ashleigh Lozier and Zakia Jackson (SR/Hermitage, TN)bined to serve the Trojans to a 7-1 lead before Cedarville could mount a rally. Eventually the Trojans lead grew to 16-7. Cedarville cut in to the lead and then Rachel Krikke served them back into range scoring four straight points and the Trojan lead was three at 18-15. The Jackets cut the lead to just two points on a couple of occasions. The last was at 21-19, but the Jackets gave up the serve on a attack error and Allison Boe served out for the set and match win. Atkinson had four kills in the set and Bennett turned in 11 assists. The Trojans hit for .235 with 12 kills.

 

Katelyn Atkinson led the Trojans with 17 kills and a .344 attack percentage. The G-MAC co-Player of the Year added nine digs, five blocks, and two assists.  Clare Taylor and Zakia Jackson each had nine kills in support. Taylor had 13 digs, a service ace, and two blocks. Loren Bennett had 40 assists, six digs, and two blocks. Janessa Hodge (FR/Nashville, MI)ed four blocks, five digs, and three kills. Alex Reuter had five blocks and five kills. Ashleigh Lozier had 10 digs and two service aces. Allison Boe had 12 digs and a service ace.

 

As a team the Trojans hit for a .270 percentage with 44 kills and 14 errors in 111 attempts.

 

WHAT'S NEXT NCAA Division II Home Page

 

The selections for the 2015 NCAA Division II Women's Volleyball Championship Regionals will be announced at 6:30 PM CT, Monday, Nov. 23 via web stream on NCAA.com. It is then that the Trojans will find out then who they play and when.

 

WATCH SELECTION SHOW

 

Regional sites will run Thursday-Saturday (Dec. 3-5) or Friday-Sunday (Dec. 4-6).

 

Regional sites are bid on and often times that location ends up being the top-seed in each reach. The top seed in the Midwest Region is currently Ferris State University

 

COACH JAYME CROWLEY

Jayme Crowley is in her eighth season with the Trojan volleyball program. Her overall, following the 2015 G-MAC Championships, is 159-125, while going 49-39 (24-19 G-MAC) in conference play.  

 

Crowley is the third TNU coach to reach the 20-win mark. She is the second to reach that win total more than once. It is the fifth time a Crowley coached team has reached the 20-win mark. Only Scott Jones had more 20-win seasons. He had seven in his 11 years. Crowley has five in eight seasons. Crowley's teams are 14-12 in post-season play.

 

THE HISTORY

The six-team G-MAC championship concluded with Saturday's championship game between Trevecca and the three-time defending champion.

 

The Jackets entered the final with an 8-0 record in the G-MAC Tournament having dropped three sets total. Trevecca ended that streak and doubled the number of sets the three-time champions had lost.

 

Trevecca defeated #1 seed Alderson Broaddus University (14-18) in three sets (25-17, 27-25, 25-18) on Friday to advance to Saturday's championship final.

 

Cedarville University (19-15) advanced to the championship after defeating #3 seed Davis & Elkins College (15-16) in the other semifinal on Friday.

 

This is the first time a Trevecca team has received and automatic bid to the NCAA Regional.

 

It is the first time a team other than Cedarville has won the G-MAC volleyball championship; the Yellow Jackets had claimed the first three in the conferences history.

 

It is the first year that the G-MAC, a new NCAA D2 conference, will have its champion earn an automatic bid.

 

Trevecca's softball team earned an at large bid to the regionals last year. Trevecca's cross country teams have gone to regionals the last two years, but all teams in the conference advance. Alexa Rippy advanced to the women's golf regionals as an individual last year. 

 

TROJAN NOTES

The Trojans are on an eight-match win streak  

The Trojans were 4-6 after their first 10 matches of the year and are 16-5 since

The team advances to the NCAA Regional with its 20th win of the season  

The 20 wins are the most for a Trojan team since the 2012-13 team had 23 wins

TNU ended 2015-16 with the third best G-MAC record (7-3)   

The seven regular season conference wins are the most for the Trojans in the NCAA/G-MAC era

The 2011-12 team had nine conference wins in the last year of the NAIA/TranSouth era  

Trevecca ended the regular season on a 15-set winning streak, then won the first two sets against KWC in the G-MAC quarterfinals, but lost the next two against KWC before advancing with a fifth-set win, including that fifth-set win - TNU has rolled off another seven straight sets without a loss

The Purple & White are winners of 24 of their last 26 sets, this stretch includes winning seven (7) 3-0 sweeps and one five set win  

The Trojans are 7-2 on a neutral court this season

The team came together during a stretch of matches where they played 12 of 13 matches on the road.

 

TROJAN INDIVIDUAL MILESTONES

Loren Bennett is third on the TNU all-time assists list with 2661. Natalie Pifer (5722) and Kelly Huff (4650) are first and second in Trevecca career assists.

 

Katelyn Atkinson with her 1293 career kills is second all-time behind Trevecca Hall of Famer Michelle Arend Plummer who finished her carer with 1369.

 

G-MAC RECORD KEEPERS

Katelyn Atkinson

G-MAC career leader in career points with 1476

G-MAC career leader in career kills with 1293 (Alyx Henry OVU 1245)  

G-MAC season leader in points with 563.5 (Alyx Henry OVU 525 in 2014)

G-MAC season leader for kills in a season with 494 (Alyx Henry OVU 455 in 2014)

 

Loren Bennett

G-MAC career leader in assists with 2661

 

ON PACE FOR HISTORY

Katelyn Atkinson is on pace to break the G-MAC season record for points per set with an average of 5.03 points per set. She is set to break the record held by Kelsey Volkmer who has an average of 4.54 points per set in 2012.

 

Katelyn Atkinson is on pace to set the record for kills per set. The junior is averaging 4.41 kills per set, which will break the record set by Kelsey Volkmer for Urbana in 2012 with a 4.13 kills per set average. 

 

Loren Bennett is averaging 10.38 assists per set, which will break the record set by Jessica Simpson of Ohio Valley University who averaged 10.18 per set in 2014.

 

THREE SET MATCHES

Trevecca is 11-5 in three-set matches with five consecutive three-set wins to end the regular season. They started the season with two three-set wins. Trevecca's five three-set losses were all out of conference. 

 

FIVE SET MATCHES

Trevecca is 3-1 in five-set matches. Their first win was in the very first conference match, a 3-2 win at Ursuline College. Trevecca had a five-set win over King University in the middle of their extended road trip. The five-set loss was the first home match after that road trip to Cedarville. Which was also the last time the Trojans lost a set prior to the third set versus KWC Thursday. 

  

G-MAC SEASON RECORDS IN THE CROSS HAIRS

Total Attacks

1,201 Alyx Henry, Ohio Valley 2014

1,195 Kelsey Volkmer, Urbana 2012

1,172 Kristen Johnson, Trevecca 2012

Katelyn Atkinson Trevecca 1139 - 2015

1,098 Alyx Henry, Ohio Valley 2013

1,007 Imani Ward, Ohio Valley 2014

 

Total Assists

1,242 Jessica Simpson, Ohio Valley 2014

1,179 Jessica Simpson, Ohio Valley 2013

Loren Bennett 1151 TNU assists 2015

 

Blocks Per Set  

.99 – Victoria Morgan – 2013

0.90 Rachel Krikke, Cedarville 2014

Alex Reuter .89 blocks per set – 2015

Janessa Hodge .88 blocks per set – 2015