NCAC Championship Match

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - The Hiram Terriers displayed great balance offensively and defensively to upset Wooster, 3-0, and move into the championship match of the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Tournament for the seventh straight year.

The Terriers, the No. 3 seed in the tournament after finishing the NCAC regular season with an 11-5 record, improved to 19-17 overall and advanced to take on the top-seeded host Wittenberg Tigers at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 8, also in Pam Evans Smith Arena. The second-seeded Scots saw their fine season end with records of 20-13 overall and 13-3 in the NCAC.

The tone for the entire match was set late in the opening frame as Wooster couldn't hang on to several leads and wound up falling 27-25. The Scots led 21-19 before a three-point Hiram run and then had a set point at 25-24 before the Terriers closed with three straight points for a 27-25 win.

Set 2 was all Hiram as the Terriers jumped on top 10-2 and never were seriously threatened, closing it out 25-14. In the third set, Wooster led 6-2 in the early going and still held an advantage as late as 19-18. However, the Terriers again closed with a flourish, outscoring the Scots 7-3 to close out a 25-22 win and the match.

The Terriers put together an outstanding .304 team attack percentage in the opening set but did it more with scrappy defense and opportunistic play after that. For the match, Hiram hit .207, led by Kristi Opfer with 10 kills and Rebekah Williams with nine. Taylor Summerfield dished out 28 assists, while the defense was spearheaded by Brittany Mayle with 12 digs and Charley McQueary with 11.

Wooster, on the other hand, never really got it going on offense and wound up with a .116 attack percentage, by KateLynn Riley with 12 kills. Lizzi Beal finished with 26 assists, but the Scots were hurt by six untimely service errors to go along with four ball-handling errors. Defensively, all action funneled to libero Ali Drushal as usual, and she came up with 22 digs.