BOX SCORE

LISLE, Ill. – After dropping the first set 25-27, the Benedictine University volleyball team rallied to win the next three sets over Maranatha Baptist Bible College in the semifinals of the Northern Athletics Conference Tournament on Thursday night in the Rice Center.

Maranatha took a 10-5 lead in the first game before kills from Kayla Leyden and Candice Cuppini tied the game at 12. Benedictine then took a 20-16 lead before the Crusaders took advantage of several Eagle hitting errors along with kills from Torey DeLozier and Mary Lynn Strayer to give MBBC the 27-25 win.

The Eagles stormed back in set two going ahead 9-1 and eventually winning 25-15. Benedictine had 15 kills for a .243 hitting percentage. Set three was much the same with the Eagles hitting .409 with 11 kills and just two hitting errors.

The fourth set came down to the wire with the set tied at 10-all before an ace from Leyden and kill from Cuppini gave Benedictine the 19-15 advantage. Maranatha never gave up; rallying back to 21-19 with two kills from DeLozier, but a kill from Brooke Bowman and an ace from Leyden secured the Eagles 25-21 victory.

Leyden led all players with 23 kills and 19 digs while Cuppini tallied 14 kills. Jackie Rust had 18 digs and Meagan Kmieciak had 17 digs while Taylor Hoppe had 24 assists and two aces. 

DeLozier led MBBC with 18 kills and 19 digs.

With the win, Benedictine will be competing for the NAC championship at Dominican University at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 6.