2019 NAIA Women’s Volleyball National Championship Recap

SIOUX CITY, Iowa – Marian (Ind.) is the 2019 National Champion with a 3-0 win over Westmont (Calif.) on Saturday night in the Tyson Events Center.

The Westmont Warriors begun their trek for a title ranked just outside the Top 25 at 26 in the final regular-season poll. The Warriors were ranked as high as 17 this season but remained outside the Top 25 Poll for the last four polls of the season.

In the teams' 13^th appearance, Westmont hosted an opening round against Point (Ga.) where the team captured its first 2019 tournament win with a 3-0 sweep.

The Warriors became one of three opening round teams to advance out of the quarterfinals (Wayland Baptist (Texas) in 2013 and former member Lee (Tenn.) in 2009). The last time that the Warriors advanced to the semifinals was in 1999 and the 2019 appearance was their third semifinal appearance.

After making their way past Viterbo (Wis.) in the semifinal, the Warriors advanced to the championship for the first time and became the only opening round team to advance to the championship match.

The Marian Knights received an opening round bye to the final site in Sioux City, Iowa after being ranked at No. 11 in the final regular-season poll. The Knights opened up the 2019 season at No. 24 and worked their way up to their programs' highest rank at 11. The 2019 season was only the third season that Marian appeared in the Top 25 poll.

In the Knights third appearance, they advanced out of pool play for the first time. The team battled through three sweeps, two four-set matches and only one five-set match prior to the championship.  

The 2019 tournament saw 21 five-set matches out of a total of 63 and both of the championship teams only played in one.

The championship match started off with a kill by Cassi Rae of Westmont to give the Warriors the lead. Westmont led the set until Marian launched a four-point run that gave the Knights the lead for the first time in the set at 13-12. The Knights continued to put pressure on the Warriors but with a 5-2 run Marian closed out the first set with a win.     

Westmont captured the lead early in set two with a score of 6-3. The Knights, however, stormed back to tie the score at 10. The teams battled for the lead with five tie scores until Marian held onto a two-point lead before a 5-1 run that closed out set two and gave the Knights a 2-0 set lead in the match.

After a tie score of six, Marian went on a 6-2 run that would give them a lead that they did not relinquish as the Knights closed out the match in three straight sets to become the 2019 national champions.

There were a total of 24 tie scores in the match and 14 of them were in set two.

Skylar Van Note of Marian led all hitters with a total of 20 kills in the match with no errors and an impressive hitting percentage of 0.435.

Megan Hawley led the defensive effort for the Knights with a total of 15 digs for an average of five digs per set.

Lexi Spence and Madi Heffron directed the Knights offense with 21 and 15 assists respectively.

All-Tournament Team

Megan Bunn, Eastern Oregon

Trystin Luneckas, Grand View (Iowa)

Havyn Gates, Indiana Wesleyan

Britta Knudson, Jamestown (N.D.)

Kasia Niderla, Lindsey Wilson (Ky.)

Sarah Spangler, Marian (Ind.)

Caterina Cigarina, Missouri Baptist

Anna Wedel, Northwestern (Iowa)

Lacey Wacker, Northwestern (Iowa)

Nada Meawad, Park (Mo.)

Taylor Rivstvedt, Southern Oregon

Maya Roberts, Viterbo (Wis.)

Cassidy Rea, Westmont (Calif.)

Lexi Malone, Westmont (Calif.)

National Tournament Defender – Havyn Gates, Indiana Wesleyan

Most Valuable Player – Skyler Van Note, Marin (Ind.)

National Tournament Coach – Ashlee Pritchard, Marian (Ind.)