The Thomas More College volleyball team fell 3-0 to Berry College Thursday in a first round match of the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament Regional hosted by Berry at the Steven J. Cage Athletic & Recreation Center in Mount Berry, Georgia.
The Vikings won the match by the scores of 25-22, 25-18 and 25-17.
With the loss, the Saints end the Season at 26-5 while the Vikings improve to 25-7 and play Hendrix College Friday in a second-round match.
The Saints were led by sophomore setter Jenna Fessler (Fort Mitchell, Ky./Beechwood), who had six kills and 15 assists. Senior outside hitter Stacy Howell (Cincinnati, Ohio/Glen Este) finished with six kills and junior outside hitter Marisa Meyer (Cincinnati, Ohio/Seton) added five kills.
Defensively, the Saints were led by sophomore defensive specialist Rachel Bronner (Reading, Ohio/Mount Notre Dame) with 15 digs, while Fessler added 10. Howell led the team in blocks with three.
This was the Saints’ 14th appearance in the NCAA Division III Volleyball Championship Tournament since joining the NCAA in 1990.
Saints’ outside hitter Howell named PAC Volleyball Player of Year
The Thomas More College volleyball team earned the Presidents’ Athletic Conference Volleyball Player of the Year and Coach of the Year honors and six Saints were named All-PAC by the conference’s head coaches.
Senior outside hitter Stacy Howell (Cincinnati, Ohio/Glen Este) was named the PAC Player of the Year and first team All-PAC. She led the PAC in kills (395, 4.34/s) and points scored (445.5, 4.90/s), finished fourth in hitting percentage (.293), and fifth in service aces (42, 0.46/s). Her 4.90 points per set and 4.34 kills per set averages rank 12th and 13th, respectively, among all NCAA Division III counterparts.
Head coach John Spinney was named the PAC Coach of the Year for the fifth time and second-straight season. He guided the Saints to their sixth PAC regular season with a perfect 18-0 record and seventh championship tournament title. Spinney, who has a career record of 304-119 has the Saints in their school-record 14th NCAA Division III Tournament.
Howell was joined on the All-PAC first team by senior middle hitter Jessica Knaley (Florence, Ky./St. Henry), sophomore setter Jenna Fessler (Fort Mitchell, Ky./Beechwood) and junior middle hitter Alexis Bierbaum (Cincinnati, Ohio/McAuley). Knaley hit .353 with 301 kills and 42 service aces, while leading the team in 68 and added 67 digs. Fessler paced the offense with team leading 1,125 assist and 47 service aces and defensively had 231 digs. Bierbaum hit .306 with 198 kills and seven services aces, while also registering 48 blocks and 31 digs.
Junior outside hitter Marisa Meyer (Cincinnati, Ohio/Seton) was named second team All-PAC after she had 218 kills, 26 service aces and was second on the team in digs with 246 and had 12 blocks. Sophomore defensive specialist Rachel Bronner (Reading, Ohio/Mount Notre Dame) was honorable mention All-PAC as she led the team in digs with 401 and added 28 service aces and 68 assists.
From TMC Athletics