The Wright State volleyball team is heading back to the NCAA Championship for the second straight season after the top seeded Raiders won the final two sets and defeated No. 2 seed UIC 3-2 on Saturday afternoon to claim the program's first Horizon League tournament title.
The Raiders (16-1) earn the Horizon's automatic qualifier spot in the NCAA Championship, with Selection Sunday set for tomorrow afternoon at 4 p.m. ET on ESPNU. Wright State earned the athletic department's first-ever at-large bid when they were selected as part of the 2019 NCAA Championship field, but this year the Raiders won't be as anxious as they wait to hear their name called. This spring's entire NCAA Championship will be held in Omaha, Nebraska, with first round matches set for April 14.
On Saturday, Wright State dropped the first and third sets while taking sets two, four and five. It was just the third five set match of the year for the Raiders and just the sixth time this season that they have played more than three sets.
Nyssa Baker was named the Horizon League Tournament MVP after recording 18 kills, 16 kills and 28 total points across Wright State's two postseason wins, while
Mallory Ladd and
Celia Powers were each named to the All-Tournament team.
As a group, the Raiders tallied a .217 hitting percentage, including marks of .342, .214 and .294 over the final three sets, while UIC finished with just a .101 hitting percentage while Wright State held the Flames to negative percentages in the final two sets (-0.135 and -0.083).
Ladd finished with 15 kills to pace the Raider offensive attack, while
Sam Wolf added 10 off the bench and Powers tallied nine of her own. Baker finished with nine kills and nine blocks, with Powers and Teddies Sauer each recording seven blocks.
Lainey Stephenson passed out 40 of the Raiders' 51 assists, while four players –
Jenna Story (18), Powers (17), Stephenson (14) and
Ellee Ruskaup (12) – all had double-digit digs.
