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EAST PEORIA, Ill. – The semifinal round of the 2018 Great Lakes Valley Conference Volleyball Championship Tournament was everything you could want in postseason competition, as No. 2 seed Drury University and No. 4 seed Rockhurst University won their matches to advance to tomorrow’s Championship contest set for Saturday, Nov. 10 at 12 p.m. Central Time. The event is being held in East Peoria, Ill., at the EastSide Centre.
In the first semifinal, No. 3 University of Illinois Springfield came out firing against Drury to win the first set, 25-19. In the second and third frames, the Panthers fired back to grab a 2-1 advantage after wins of 25-18 and 25-17. The Prairie Stars were not ready to go home, however, as they came back in the fourth set to even the score at 2-2 with a 25-21 victory. But it was the Panthers that came out on top in the deciding set, 15-10, to survive the upset. A couple Panthers had impressive performances in the victory, including Kendra Sater, who hit .643 and tallied a triple-double of 11 kills, 16 digs and a match-high 51 assists, while Bentley Mara hit .400 with a double-double of 11 digs and a match- and career-high 24 kills, which included the final swing to win the contest. After the 3-2 result, Drury will now play for its first title since joining the league in 2004.
In the second semifinal, No. 4 Rockhurst University earned its third trip to the GLVC Championship title bout with a dominating 3-0 upset sweep over Lewis to halt the Flyers’ hopes at a repeat championship bid. Lewis earned the first point of the match and led by as much as 11-3 in the first set, but the Hawks rallied for five-straight points to bring the score to 11-8 before eventually taking the lead at 17-16 and ultimately winning 25-20. The second stanza was all Rockhurst, as the Hawks scored the first tally to lead wire-to-wire for the 25-19 victory. There was more back-and-forth scoring in the last frame, but a 25-20 mark in Rockhurst’s favor gave the Hawks redemption from a 3-1 loss earlier this season on Oct. 20, and also in the 2017 title tilt. Dani Prusha notched a 32-assist, 10-dig double-double for Rockhurst. The Hawks have one Conference crown to their name, winning in 2012.
Tomorrow’s match will be the first meeting between Drury and Rockhurst in the postseason’s main event.
All GLVC Championship Tournament action will be 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/2018volleyball.