ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. --- Elizabethtown College will host Messiah College in a Commonwealth Conference volleyball semifinal match on Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. in Thompson Gymnasium.
The second-seeded Blue Jays (19-9 overall, 6-1 Commonwealth) are making their sixth consecutive appearance in the conference playoffs and would earn their fourth straight trip to the championship match with a win over the third-seeded Falcons (18-13 overall, 5-2 Commonwealth).
Under conference policy, admission will be charged to Wednesday's match - $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and $2 for students, with children under six admitted free of charge.
Wednesday's match will be a rematch of a thrilling regular-season meeting, in which the Blue Jays rallied from a 2-1 deficit to edge the Falcons 3-2, winning the fifth and deciding set by a 15-12 score.
Paige Tanner led the Blue Jays with 20 kills on the evening, while Lauren Rees paced the Falcons with 14 kills and 16 digs.
Tanner leads Elizabethtown with 310 kills and is second on the squad with 323 digs, while
Kayla Deats has added 226 kills and a team-high 100 blocks.
Crystal Agnew paces the Blue Jays with 842 assists, and
Kathy Perry has recorded a team-best 45 aces.
Andrea Weaver leads the Elizabethtown defense with 406 digs on the season while Perry has 307.
Rees is the team leader in kills for Messiah with 276 and is third in digs with 200, while Brynn Lettieri has 207 kills and leads the team in both hitting percentage (.263) and aces (69) to go with 80 blocks. Lauren Bourdon has handed out 935 assists for the Falcons, and Megan Wise paces the squad on defense with 399 digs.
The winner of Wednesday's match will face the winner of Wednesday's other semifinal match between fourth-seeded Widener University and top-seeded Lebanon Valley College in the championship match on Saturday. Lebanon Valley and Elizabethtown have met in the finals in each of the last two years, with the Blue Jays winning the title in 2007 and the Dutchmen capturing the crown in 2008.