Volleyball Wins 11th Consecutive WHAC Title
Crusaders 3-1 win at Tech, plus Cornerstone loss clinches championship
Oct. 30, 2007

Lubovj Tihomirova had a team high 23 kills Tuesday.

BOX SCORE

FORT WAYNE, Ind. – The Madonna volleyball team closed out the WHAC regular season with a victory Tuesday night, and in the process clinched their 11th consecutive regular season championship with a 30-24, 25-30, 30-25, 30-23 triumph at Indiana Tech.

The victory, coupled with Cornerstone's loss Tuesday at Michigan-Dearborn, means MU will host the upcoming WHAC volleyball final four November 9-10.

The program's 11th championship in as many seasons of WHAC play did not come easy as the host Warriors put up a fight, taking game two and rushing back from a 29-14 deficit in game four before MU put the game away.

Lubovj Tihomirova was the offensive catalyst with 23 kills, three aces and seven block assists.  Mary McGinnis and Whitney Fuelling chipped in 17 and eight kills respectively.

Reigning conference and regional setter of the week Inta Grinvalds posted 44 assists in the match.

The win improves MU to 28-10 overall and closes the conference slate with a 12-2 record.  MU will be the host team and #1 seed in
the conference tournament and receive a bye to the final four round. Joining MU with a first round bye is Michigan-Dearborn who clinched the #2 seed with its win over Cornerstone Tuesday. The Golden Eagles can finish no worse than the #3 seed with one conference game remaining while Indiana Tech is locked into the #4 slot.

The only seedings yet to be determined are #5 and #6, still up for grabs between Concordia and Davenport. The Panthers defeated Siena Heights Tuesday and can secure the fifth seed with a victory Thursday over Cornerstone. A Davenport loss would give Concordia the five slot by vertue of their tied records and two wins head to head over the Panthers.

Post Game Quotes
Head Coach Jerry Abraham
On the match itself:
“This is always a tough trip with the long ride down here and playing in a hostile environment, but I thought the kids played super tonight. We had a few moments there – especially in game two where we didn’t – but they knew that the task was to win a championship, they did that and I’m very proud of them.”

On winning the 11th straight WHAC title:
“One of our goals every year is to win the conference title. But it doesn’t stop here, as we want to win the conference tournament and host regionals. One of our goals was to get better as the season went on and peak at the right time and I think that a game like tonight shows that we are doing that.

On the possible hang over for the team coming off of two losses last weekend after upsetting #5 National American and #27 Walsh on Friday:
“I had no doubt that they would play well tonight. We had a good practice yesterday. For most of that weekend we played well. We have been playing a lot of volleyball games and you can’t keep that emotional high game after game after game. Tonight was a conference match, they knew the importance of it and they responded like good teams do, like championship teams do and tonight they played like champions.”

Senior libero Jacqui Gatt
On the team winning its 11th straight WHAC title:
“When you walk into the gym every day for practice and look up at the banner on the wall and see all of those years in a row, it makes you play that much harder so that when it’s your senior year you can hang a number up there and leave your mark on the program like so many other people have. It was our goal from the start of pre-season, and really from when we lost at Nationals last year to win the WHAC and leave our mark.”

On coming back after the emotional weekend:
“Friday’s wins were great and we knew we didn’t play our best volleyball on Saturday, but coming into tonight, we knew what was on the line and what we had to do. We came out and for most of the match, we played our game and played well. We had some lapses in game two but came back and refocused and knew that if we played the way we could, we would be ok.”

Her thoughts when Tech came back from match point to make it 29-23 in the fourth game:
“Tech is a very good team, we went five with them earlier this year so we knew they weren’t going to lay down. We made some mistakes and to their credit, they took advantage of them. It seemed like every time we would hit a great shot, they would dig it off the floor and get a great shot of their own. But we also knew that we had worked too hard to let the win slip away.”


VIEW TOURNAMENT BRACKET/INFO

Contact:
Matt Fancett, Assistant Athletics Director - Media Relations
Patrick Moore, Sports Information Director
(734) 432-5610/5834