ARLINGTON, Texas – The No. 3 Seed Dallas Christian Volleyball team pulled off back-to-back victories on Friday to secure its first NCCAA Southwest Regional Championship. The Crusaders edged No. 2 Seed Randall University less than a week later in another five-set thriller to advance to the championship match.
Host school and No. 4 Seed Arlington Baptist had upset top-seeded Manhattan Christian College in five sets earlier in the day to create the DFW showdown.
After falling in the opening set by two to ABU, the Crusaders stood their ground on tired legs and prevailed in the next three sets, including a 29-27 clincher.
Dallas Christian has now won three straight games and improved to 10-6 on the campaign, as it advances to the NCCAA DII Volleyball National Championship on November 18 in Greenville, South Carolina.
Caitlyn Yablon, who along with junior classmate Lauren Baker was named to the NCCAA Southwest All-Region First-Team, would combine for exactly 100 digs in the pair of wins. Elizabeth Morrow was a force for DCC's offense, as she collected team-highs in kills in both contests to go along with double-doubles, too.
(NCCAA SOUTHWEST SEMIFINAL VS. RANDALL)
The set scores were 25-16, 27-25, 16-25, 15-25, 15-13, as the Crusaders grabbed a 2-0 lead before the Saints answered back. The deciding set was a two-point scoring difference.
In the opening frame, DCC laced together six points that made it a 10-4 advantage. Eventually an 18-9 run would build a 22-13 lead. Nine was the widest scoring margin of the set.
The next set saw DCC score three of the first four points, but things remained tight until the Saints went up 16-12. A six-straight scoring streak that included kills from Christen Downey and Cameron Del Angel and was capped by consecutive kills from Baker to make it 18-16 favoring the Crusaders. Randall had a four-point streak to go up by a pair. Deadlocked at 21, each team had three-point streaks with the Saints up for a chance to level the set scores on four occasions, including a 25-24 mark that had come on a kill by Kinzee Goodno. The Crusaders had a kill from Morrow to stay alive and the frame ended on a block assist from Summer Doty and Maya Harrington on the left side to give DCC a 2-0 edge.
Though both of the next two sets had early close scores, it was the Saints that pulled away thanks to a 9-2 run in the third and 12-3 run in the fourth to force a deciding set.
DCC took advantage of a service error to go up 5-4 and would never relinquish the lead as a 9-3 run extended the advantage to 13-7. Randall called its final timeout and mustered four straight to pull within two points. After the Crusaders got to 14-11, the Saints picked up a block and kill to made it a one-point game. DCC used its last timeout and Downey registered a kill for the winning point.
Morrow had 18 kills and 26 digs, while Baker also notched a double-double with 13 kills and 28 digs. Yablon produced 49 digs, as the team finished with 140. Hannah Gallegos and Kelly Graves each eclipsed 20 assists. Harrington and Doty contributed four blocks each.
DCC would go 2-1 against the Saints this year, winning both in five sets.
Randall was led by Teagan Hamilton with 15 kills and 18 digs, and Brooke Spears with 14 kills and seven blocks. Priscilla Crowell added 41 digs and RU had 125 to go with 20 blocks, which was led individually by Goodno.
(NCCAA SOUTHWEST CHAMPIONSHIP VS. ARLINGTON BAPTIST)
The Crusaders won the match in four sets by totals of: 27-25, 20-25, 21-25, 27-29.
In the nightcap, Yablon had an ace that gave DCC an early 8-5 lead. The Crusaders raced out to a 12-8 lead, which was the largest of the set. They led 14-11 but were never able to break away and the Patriots got the score tied at 17. That was part of a an 8-3 scoring swing to push the host school up and was capped by four unanswered. Another Yablon ace and kill by Doty helped get the score tied at 20. The Patriots were up 24-23 when kills by Del Angel and Morrow flipped the lead, however it was ABU that got the three determining points.
After an 8-8 tie, the Crusaders headed up to a 14-11 lead. Despite being down a point at 15-14, the Crusaders would claim four-of-five points to go up the rest of the set. Doty was involved in five of the last seven DCC points, including four blocks and two of them solo.
In the third stanza, ABU went up 9-5 but that was quickly nipped with a 4-0 run propelling the Crusaders up 16-12. Doty had an ace to cap an 11-3 run that turned to a 15-4 streak for Dallas Christian. Up 19-14, the Patriots slashed the margin to a point with a 5-1 run. The Crusaders used a kill by Downey and Doty solo block to stymie the momentum and logged five points on the last seven sequences. The set ended with two points in a row from Doty on a kill and then teaming up with Harrington on another block assist.
The fourth set saw DCC go ahead 13-9, but the Patriots crawled back. Even with a huge block by Downey and service ace by Graves to get the Crusaders up two (16-14), Arlington Baptist did not go away with three straight. Seven of the next 10 points turned the tide for the Crusaders to make it 23-20. Kills from Morrow (2) and Doty were responsible for the last three DCC points in that run. The Patriots evaporated the gap to 23-23 and would hold a 25-24 lead. Dallas Christian scored the next two to avoid losing and could sense the excitement of being on the brink of clinching, as it heard the DCC faithful cheering for them. Arlington Baptist had other plans with two more points to put it in position of staying alive. Downey had a potent kill to keep hope again and a service ace by Graves lifted the Crusaders up. The final point went the Crusaders way as the scrappy Patriots did not return the ball over on the last play and it was the team's first celebration for a regional title.
"The mindset all day was wonderful and we all had a positive attitude," Morrow stated. "God has given us these gifts to show off and this was our time to show off the gifts that He has given us. We knew that we were tired but we had to play through it. We got calm and collected and we just played our hearts out."
Morrow once again led the team with 17 kills and had just as many digs for a double-double. Downey and Doty completed a trio in double figures for kills with 10 apiece. Yablon surpassed her impressive dig total the previous match with 51 in this one. Doty collected eight blocks, including half of them on solos. Graves was the leader in assists with 23 and had two big aces.
"I am taking my bag with me on the plane," Morrow joked when asked about going to the national tournament. "I know this is a team with a bunch of wonderful girls that each have their own talent and we are just blessed to have all these girls on a team together."
Yablon reflected on the team's success being that the "overall mindset of the day was not a ball hits the floor. I showed up to play for my team today." Yablon thought it was a cool experience to be part of the First Team All-Region but gave credit to not being able to do it without the people around her.
She added, "We played our hearts out in that first match and despite being drained we still fought through and came together as a team and were able to win. That just solidifies that when we go to nationals we can beat anyone at anytime and that is a good feeling."
The Crusaders went to 3-0 on the Patriots this season and held that record in three matches (including one neutral) in Arlington Baptists' home gym.
Arlington Baptist was led by Aubrey Grantham and Peniah Waites with 16 kills each. Grantham added 19 digs for a double-double. Bill Sulak totaled 42 assists, six kills and blocks, and was one-of-three players with 20 digs or more. The team had 114 digs.
Doty is one of the two seniors that got recognized last week and was part of a thriller in the team's final home match. She was estatic to be part of the closest moment to achieving this banner in her four years. Of course she wasn't hesitant to give the praise to DCC's Head Coach Tyese little.
"It is all Coach Tyese...she motivates and pushes us everyday and I am glad we could come together at the perfect time," Doty shared. "We had to overcome different challenges this year."
