Box Score

ANNVILLE, Pa. - For the first time ever, the Lebanon Valley College volleyball team is going to the NCAA Tournament.

LVC won its first Commonwealth Conference championship in program history Saturday night, defeating Elizabethtown College 3-0 (25-18, 25-14, 25-15) to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

The Dutchmen (33-2), winners of 22 straight matches, will find out their NCAA fate on Sunday when the brackets are released. Regional round play will begin Thursday at one of eight pre-determined sites; the closest sites are Juniata College and New York University.

For Head Coach Wayne Perry, who has built the program over the past 22 years, his first championship is a sweet one.

"I don't even know what to say," he said after the match. "I'm just so proud, so happy for the team."

Senior setter Erin Yost, who had 32 assists against E-town and 28 in the semifinal versus Messiah, was named tournament MVP.

Michelle Little had a huge match, leading all players with 11 kills on a blistering .455 hitting percentage. Emily Hopkins added 10 kills, four assist blocks, and a solo block that clinched championship point. Brandi Roth led defensively with 17 digs.

Elizabethtown's Paige Tanner turned in nine kills, and Allie Gold had 18 digs.

The first set was tight until LVC pulled away on Angela Kuperavage's service midway through. The Dutchmen hit a 6-0 run to a take a 22-16 lead, and never let E-town get much closer than that as they closed out the set with a big kill by Hopkins to win 25-18.

If the first set win wasn't enough, the Dutchmen made sure they turned all the momentum in their favor with a huge 16-0 run in the second set. LVC fell in an early 8-4 hole but pulled ahead with the run that included four kills by Little and a pair of Christa Vrabel aces. By the time E-town recovered, the Dutchmen were well on their way to a 25-14 set win.

E-town again played LVC close for the first 11 points of the third, but a 7-3 run by the Dutchmen led to a Blue Jay timeout. LVC kept pounding away, though, increasing the run to 11-3 on Joelle Snyder's serving, which included three aces in the midst of 6-0 spurt. E-town finally regained serve on a Hopkins error, but the sophomore made up for it with a big kill at 23-15 and then with the championship-winning block.