A Historic Run, Twenty Years in the Making
BY: JAYME BERTISH
STAFF WRITER
On November 9, 2019 the Westminster women’s volleyball team accomplished something that they haven’t in over twenty years. As the number 2 seed, they came into the conference tournament looking to continue their successful season. The conference championship game was held at Greenville University who had been eliminated from the tournament already. The final two teams were the Westminster Blue Jays and MacMurray Highlanders.
MacMurray came out swinging to start the game and got a victory in the first set, 25-23. But the Blue Jays never gave up. The veteran presence of the Blue Jays was felt as seniors Teresa Becker and Ashley Kistaitis helped lead the way with a strong offensive attack. Kistaitis led the team with a total of 27 kills and Becker helped manage the floor as she gathered 48 assists throughout the game. Their strong play was carried on by the rest of the team as they fought hard throughout all four sets. In the fourth set, the Blue Jays closed the door on the Highlanders with a 25-18 win. This win awarded Westminster first place in the Saint Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC) and punched them a ticket to the NCAA Division III national tournament.
About a week later Friday, November 15, the Blue Jays hit the road to take on their first-round opponents, University of Chicago. The Bluejays had already etched their name in the history books with their first SLIAC victoriy since 1998, but they had high hopes in going even further. The task at hand, University of Chicago, was not an easy one for the Blue Jays though. Coming into the game, Chicago had only lost three games on the year. A tough task for the Blue Jays team to say the least. But they fought hard. The Blue Jays stuck with Chicago in the first set, keeping things close throughout and failing just short with a final score of 25-18. From then on out, Chicago slowly but surely gained some ground on the Blue Jays. The second set was all Chicago as they took a two set to none lead over the Blue Jays. As always, the
Blue Jays grinded out the third set in hopes to make a tremendous comeback, but things fell in the favor of Chicago as they completed the sweep with a 25-17 win in the third set.
Despite the quick exit in the NCAA national tournament, the Blue Jays put together quite the season. Countless highlight plays, season highs, and they made history. Although the Blue Jays will be losing some key seniors in Kistaitis and Becker, they now know what It is like to accomplish a SLIAC championship and will come back next year with a strong core group that can help defend their spot at the top for years to come.
The Columns 