CMS will try to win an NCAA regional title at home, one week after its SCIAC title.

Posted: Nov 07, 2022

CMS Volleyball to Host NCAA Division III Regional Thursday-Saturday

CLAREMONT, Calif. – The top-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps volleyball team will serve as one of the eight regional hosts for the NCAA Division III Tournament as it holds an eight-team regional from Thursday-Saturday at Roberts Pavilion, it was announced today on the NCAA Division III selection show.

CMS (28-0) will open play in the regional quarterfinals on Thursday against Fontbonne (15-10) at a time to be determined. The winner will move on to Friday's semifinals to play the winner of a regional quarterfinal matchup between UC Santa Cruz and Texas-Dallas. The other half of the regional bracket includes Trinity (Texas) against Puget Sound and Texas Lutheran against the University of Chicago.

The regional championship will be played on Saturday at 5 p.m. for the right to advance to the NCAA Division III nationals (NCAA Quarterfinals, Semifinals and Finals) in Pittsburgh next week.

The Athenas earned the SCIAC's automatic bid with a 3-0 win over Pomona-Pitzer in the league championship match on Saturday, improving to 28-0 on the season. CMS has lost only four sets all year, one in conference, which came in a 3-1 road win over Pomona-Pitzer. The Athenas also had 3-1 wins over both Trinity and Emory on Sept. 10, and a 3-1 win over Colorado College on Sept. 17.

Dede Carranza earned the SCIAC Tournament Most Outstanding Player honor, adding it to the league's Defensive Athlete of the Year which she picked up prior to the tournament. Jenna Holmes earned the SCIAC Offensive Athlete of the Year honor, and was the AVCA National Player of the Week after the wins over Trinity and Emory. Georgia McGovern, Brenna Bell and Audrey Sawyer joined Carranza and Holmes as first-team All-SCIAC selections, while Summer Ellis earned second-team honors.

Bell (.404), Sawyer (.395) and Ellis (.393) are all on pace to break Sawyer's program record for hitting percentage, which she set last year at .381. As a team, CMS is hitting .314, which is 37 points higher than the second-best percentage in Division III (Northwestern at .277), with McGovern and Spencer Hagenbuch co-quarterbacking the offense that also leads the nation in assists and kills per set.

The NCAA Regional will serve as an effective dry run for CMS, which will host nationals next year at Roberts Pavilion for the first time. Match times and ticket information to come.