TOWSON, Md. --- The Moravian College women's volleyball team entered the final day of the regular season needing to win both of its Landmark Conference matches to clinch a berth in the 2017 Landmark Conference Tournament, and the Greyhounds did just that with a 3-1 win over host Goucher College and a 3-2 victory over The Catholic University of America Saturday with the latter win giving Moravian Head Coach Shelley Bauder her 500th career win.
Bauder, who is in her 25th season leading the Greyhound program, is now 500-337 in Bethlehem, and she has guided the Hounds to the postseason for the second straight fall. Bauder is the 31st active NCAA Division III coach to reach 500 career victories and the fourth to hit the milestone in 2017.
"Shelley's successful tenure as our volleyball coach culminated today with her 500th win. This milestone is a tremendous accomplishment," stated Director of Athletics & Recreation Mary Beth Spirk. "Shelley has been a role model for her players over the years and continues to be a positive leader of our department. Success will continue to follow Shelley and her teams as she continues to coach here at Moravian."
Moravian returns to the Landmark Conference for the first time since 2014 and will travel to top seed Juniata College for a Semifinal match on Wednesday, November 1 at 7:00 p.m. The Eagles won a three-way tie for first in the conference on the percentage of sets won between the tied teams after Juniata lost a conference match for the first time since 1983 on Saturday.
The Greyhounds opened the day at Goucher with a back-and-forth set against the Gophers with Goucher winning 30-28. Moravian bounced back to capture the next three sets, 25-16, 28-26 and 25-17. Senior outside hitter Mary Zacher led the Blue and Grey with 19 kills to go with ten digs, two service aces and a pair of blocks while freshman middle hitter Madi Anslow had 11 kills and five blocks. Junior middle hitter Erin Tiger and sophomore outside hitter Brooke Kusmider each contributed ten kills with Tiger adding five blocks and Kusmider recording three digs and a pair of service aces.
Sophomore setter Victoria Kauffman ran the offense with 42 assists to go with six digs, three blocks and two kills while senior libero Jean Markovic recorded a team-high 22 digs to go with three assists and a pair of service aces. Junior defensive specialist Bridgette Devlin added 11 digs while sophomore defensive specialist Alexis Szaro had eight digs. Freshman right side hitter Emerson Gieryic contributed a pair of kills, four blocks and two digs.
The final match of the regular season with Catholic went back-and-forth as well with Moravian winning the opening set 25-23. The Cardinals evened the match with a 25-13 win in the second set while the Greyhounds captured the third set by the exact same score for a 2-1 edge. Catholic forced a fifth set with a 25-23 victory in the fourth set while the Greyhounds would clinch their playoff berth with a 15-5 win in the final set after jumping out to a 5-0 lead.
Tiger had a team-high 23 kills in the victory to go along with nine blocks while Zacher added 15 kills and 16 digs to increase her career totals to 1,483 kills and 1,502 digs as she ranks fourth in career kills and sixth in career digs. Kusmider contributed nine kills and seven digs for the Hounds while Anslow recorded eight kills and six blocks.
Kauffman had another 49 assists to raise her career total to 2,283 assists, which is fifth in school history, and Kauffman had 12 digs and three blocks while Markovic added 39 digs and three assists, and she is second in the Moravian record books with 2,230 digs. Szaro contributed 13 digs while Devlin made seven digs. Senior middle hitter Jackie Finnegan recorded eight blocks and a pair of kills in the win.
Moravian will head to Huntingdon for the Landmark Conference Semifinal match starting at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 1.
