Box score
ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. --- Elizabethtown College used a torrid hitting performance to defeat Messiah College 3-0 (25-11, 25-19, 25-16) in the Commonwealth Conference volleyball semifinals at Thompson Gymnasium on Wednesday night.
The Blue Jays (20-9 overall) hit .438 as a team and did not trail at any point in the match to earn the win over the Falcons (18-14 overall) and advance to Saturday's championship match (6:00 p.m.) at top-seeded Lebanon Valley College, which defeated Widener University 3-0 in Wednesday's other semifinal match.
Paige Tanner led the Blue Jays with 14 kills while
Kayla Deats had nine kills and no errors in 16 attacks to lead the offense, while
Crystal Agnew had 34 assists.
Kathy Perry added a match-high 11 digs to pace the Elizabethtown defensive performance, and
Andrea Weaver added 10 digs and three aces.
Elizabethtown jumped to a 9-1 lead in the first set and never looked back, hitting .536 as a team with 15 kills and no errors on 28 attacks. Messiah challenged in the second set, pulling within 20-17 before Elizabethtown scored five of the final seven points. In the third set, the Blue Jay lead seesawed between one and two points until Weaver served seven straight points to turn a 17-15 lead into a 24-15 advantage.
Lauren Rees led the Falcons with 12 kills and six digs, while Lauren Bourdon had 29 assists and Megan Wise contributed seven digs. Messiah hit .189 as a team in the match and had nine service errors and 18 attack errors as a team, in contrast to five attack errors and no service errors by Elizabethtown.