MOUNT VERNON – The Cornell and Lawrence volleyball teams had been on a collision course for a couple months, and here they were Saturday afternoon in a winner-take-all finale for the Midwest Conference championship.
An incredible title streak that began in 2012 remained intact as the homestanding Rams knocked off their chief challenger in four sets – list scores (16-25, 25-18, 22-22, 27-25) – in a battle of MWC unbeatens at the Small Athletic and Wellness Center.
Coach
Jeff Meeker's Rams captured their 14th consecutive MWC regular-season crown. To put that in perspective, no MWC volleyball program had ever won more than three in a row prior to Cornell's re-entrance into the conference.
Cornell (14-8 overall, 9-0 MWC) earned the No. 1 seed and hosting rights for the six-team MWC Tournament. The semifinals and final will be played in Mount Vernon Nov. 13-14.
Lawrence dropped to 17-10 overall, 8-1 in the MWC. The Vikings had only dropped two MWC sets this season prior to clashing with the Rams.
The Rams achieved their sixth consecutive undefeated MWC regular season, stretching an unparalleled winning streak to 49 matches. They have now won 59 straight matches against MWC foes, which includes conference tournament play.
After dropping the first set, the Rams trailed 4-0 in the second before going on a seven-point run highlighted by two service aces by senior
Nia Howard. With the score 15-12, Cornell put together a 6-0 run with senior
Kensie Staats serving up three aces during the span.
The third set proved to be much the same as Cornell put together long runs, highlighted by a five-pointer that saw Staats serve three more aces.
In the fourth set the Rams were down 11-8, before rallying behind the serving of
Ashlin Nottestad. During the six-point run Nottestad had three aces, putting Cornell up 14-12. The match went back and forth the rest of the way before a block by
Selia Stein and
Ally Olmstead finished off the match.
The Rams were led in kills by Olmstead and Nottestad with 12 each.
Helen Simpson added eight and Stein knocked down seven for Cornell.
Staats led the Rams with 25 digs to go with her six aces. Nottestad picked up 21 digs and four aces. Howard led Cornell with 20 assists and added two aces to push her career total to 205.
Grace Tverberg added 19 assists for the Rams. Olmstead led Cornell with eight blocks.
Coming up – The Rams travel to play national-votes getter UW-Platteville at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Platteville, Wis.
