Hawks Advance to National Round of Eight After Earning First-ever Midwest Region Title

The Rockhurst Hawks defeated second-ranked Ferris State, 3-2, to capture their first NCAA volleyball regional championship Saturday in Big Rapids, Michigan.

The seventh-ranked Hawks now advance to the national quarterfinals in Tampa, Florida. Rockhurst will face the Western Region champion on Thursday, Dec. 10, at the Bob Martinez Athletics Complex on the University of Tampa campus.

"We definitely played to win tonight," Rockhurst coach Tracy Rietzke said. "We were more aggressive and put pressure on them. It was big to get on top early in the fifth set."

Rockhurst won the fifth set 15-7 after Ferris State rallied to win the fourth set. The Bulldogs came back from a 24-20 deficit to win the fourth set, 27-25 The Hawks won the first two sets, 25-21 and 25-18. Ferris State won the third set 25-13.

The victory was redemption after losing to Ferris State 3-0 earlier this season at the Midwest Region Crossover in Aurora, Illinois.

"Our serve receive was better and we played better defense than we did the first time we played Ferris. We made smarter swings," said Rietzke, whose Hawks fell to Grand Valley State in the Midwest Regional finals last year.

Morgan Rietzke and Preecy Seever led the Hawks with 15 kills apiece. Katie Loescher and Mattie Gray finished with 11 and 10 kills, respectively. Anne Hellwege posted a team-high 26 digs. Lauren Poulicek tallied 23 digs and Alyssa Arnold added 17 digs. Whitney Kostal collected 50 assists and 10 digs.

Rietzke, Seever and Kostal were named to the All-Region team.