Tournament Homepage |
Tournament Bracket
EAST PEORIA, Ill. – In the semifinal round of the 2017 Great Lakes Valley Conference Volleyball Championship Tournament, No. 1 seed Lewis University and No. 3 seed Rockhurst University won their matches to advance to tomorrow’s Championship contest set for Sunday, Nov. 19 at 12 p.m. Central Time. The event is being held in East Peoria, Ill., at the EastSide Centre.
In the first semifinal, Rockhurst came out firing against No. 3 McKendree University to take a 2-0 lead. The first set seemed to come easy for the Hawks, as they won 25-14. The Bearcats fired back in the second frame, grabbing the first three points and later a 14-12 lead; however, Rockhurst responded with six-straight scores to earn an 18-14 advantage that proved to be a lead they would not relinquish. McKendree tried to fight its way back, but Rockhurst got the extended win, 28-26, and took that into the locker room. Finally, in the third set, the Bearcats came alive in a must-win scenario, doubling up the Hawks 10-5 early on. Rockhurst responded with an 8-3 scoring run to even the set, but McKendree answered, taking a slim lead and holding on to it for the 25-22 victory. With the score tied at 13 all in the last set, the Hawks put together an 8-3 run and coasted to a 25-19 set win.
In the second semifinal, Lewis earned its league-record 10th trip to the GLVC Championship title bout with a 3-1 win over No. 5 University of Illinois Springfield. The Flyers went up early in the first set, 7-2, forcing a UIS timeout. That reset was big for the Prairie Stars, as they responded to tie the set at 8-8, but when Lewis scored seven of the next nine points that was all it needed to get the eventual 25-23 win to open the match. Set two proved to be a similar result, with not only the score concluding 25-23, but each team trading scoring runs. UIS went ahead 5-1 early but Lewis amswered with five consecutive tallies to tie things at 7-all. The Prairie Stars later got another four points in a row to garner a 17-15 edge, but the Flyers’ four-point run for a 24-22 lead was enough. After being swept by Lewis early in the season, UIS finally took one from the third-ranked team in the nation with an impressive third-set performance, holding the Flyers to a mere .171 hitting and only 11 kills to the Prairie Stars’ .241 and 13 to take the 25-19 win. Unfortunately for UIS, Lewis turned the tables in the last stanza with its biggest hitting performance at .444 to UIS’s .000, wearing down the Prairie Stars for a 25-11 win that sealed the match victory.
Tomorrow’s match will be the second meeting between Lewis and Rockhurst in the postseason’s main event, as the Hawks won their first and last league crown against the Flyers in 2012.
All GLVC Championship Tournament action is being streamed for free on
GLVCSN.com, the GLVCSN iOS and Android mobile apps, and GLVCSN OTT apps on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, and Android TV. For further information regarding the Conference Championship Tournament, visit
GLVCsports.com/2017volleyball.