CHICAGO – In their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1998 the Westminster volleyball team fell to the University of Chicago in three sets. The Blue Jays finish the season with a record of 19-9.
The Blue Jays scored first in the first set off a block by Eryka Wanyonyi and Sarah Rivers. The Maroons answered by scoring three points off two blocks and a Westminster attack error to go up 3-1. Westminster got a kill from Teresa Becker but after that the teams exchanged points until Chicago went on a 10-point run to take a 16-5 lead. The Blue Jays were unable to comeback from the deficit and lost the set by a score of 25-18.
Westminster scored the first two points of the set from a service ace and a block by Rivers and Natalie Needy. The Maroons responded with a five-point rally to take a 5-2 lead. Westminster cut the lead to 7-6 thanks to back-to-back kills by Ashley Kistaitis, but could not take back the lead. The score remained close until the Maroons scored 10 of the last 11 points to close out the set with a 25-13 win.
In the third set the Blue Jays led early but each time Chicago was able to tie to score back up. The Maroons had rallies of four points and five points while the Blue Jays struggled to score consecutive points. Chicago won the set 25-17 to close out the match with a three-set victory.
Wanyonyi led Westminster with eight kills and also registered seven digs. Erica Schrader finished with nine digs to lead the team followed by Kistaitis with eight. Becker recorded 25 assists to lead the Blue Jays in the category.
Kistaitis finishes the season with 373 kills, the third-most in a season in school history. She ends her career with the third-most kills in school history (1015) and the fourth-most service aces (112).
Becker ends her career with a total of 2220 assists, the second-most in program history.
The post-game interviews with Westminster Head Coach Natalia Koryzna, Payton Bledsoe and Ashley Kistaitis can be found here.