LIVONIA, Mich. - The third seeded Madonna University volleyball team defeated seventh-seeded Lourdes University for the first time this season in four sets to advance to Saturday's Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference Tournament Championship contest for the first time since losing to Lourdes in 2015.

With top-seed Lawrence Technological University's win over Indiana Tech on Friday night, the Crusaders, who are 24-11 on the year, receive the WHACs second automatic qualifying bid to the NAIA National Tournament which begins next weekend. It will be the 18th trip to nationals for the program in its 33rd season. Lourdes finishes the season 14-16. 

HOW IT HAPPENED

• It was a miserable start for the Crusaders as Lourdes scored seven of the first eight points, MU tallied five kills and hit -.068 in the opening game, a 25-14 loss. 
• The Gray Wolves seemed to be in control early in set two as well. The Sylvania, Ohio school won the first three points, pushed the lead to five, 14-9, and led by four as late as 19-15. Some miscues by Lourdes and a Janelle Kwasiborski termination tied the set at 19. Lourdes scored twice more, but MU closed the game on a 7-2 run to even the match. Jodie Kelly had three big kills in the run while Erica LaBaere added a kill and DJ Sargent teamed with Kelly on a block in the 25-23 win.
• With momentum firmly on their side the Blue and Gold seemed to find a rhythm in set three as a pair of Kelly kills and an Olivia Sweeney service ace helped MU to a 4-0 lead. Kwasiborski and Kelly added a few kills and a block to help MU to a 10-5 advantage and a 9-2 run made it 19-9 as Madonna took game three, 25-16.
• Things didn't look too sunny in set four as the Gray Wolves jumped out to a 16-7 lead. Back-to-back block assists from DJ Sargent, Betsy Cook and Kelly helped spark a 10-3 Madonna run to cut the deficit to two, 19-17. A pair of Kwasiborski kills and two service aces from Natasha Strzelewicz highlighted the run. The teams traded side-outs with Lourdes leading 23-20 before MU won the final five points and the match. Kelly added two more kills and three Lourdes miscues gave MU their 18th trip to the WHAC tournament championship contest.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

• 11-6: Madonna is 11-6 in their previous 17 WHAC Championship contests, but have dropped their last two. The last win came over Lourdes in 2013 and no team has won the tournament when seeded outside the top two. 
• .438: Madonna hit a match-high .438 in the third set and finished with a .170 hitting percentage to Lourdes' .143
• 22: Kelly finished with 22 kills and added nine digs and seven block assists
• 7: Kwasiborski added seven kills and hit a team-best .375 while Sargent matched Kelly with seven blocks and added five kills
• 10+: Sweeney collected a team-best 21 digs while Ryleigh Jacobs added 13; Betsy Cook dished out 38 assists and added eight digs in the win

CRUSADER VISION

TOURNAMENT UPDATE

• The top-seeded Blue Devils defeated fifth-seed Indiana Tech in four sets in the second semifinal of the night

UP NEXT

• The Crusaders and Blue Devils will square off in the WHAC title game tomorrow, Saturday, Nov. 16 at 1 p.m. 
• Live coverage links will be made available at www.mucrusaders.com. 

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