By: Mackenzie Boos
After 17 years went by, Western volleyball made their way back into the NCAA tournament after they were awarded the No.6 seed in the central region championship.
The women went 25-11 overall with a 16-2 in conference play, while obtaining a 10-1 home winning streak.
They also won their first ever NCAA tournament match and MIAA regular season championship lead by Head Coach, Marian Carbin. She was also announced as 2017 MIAA Coach of the Year.
“My favorite part of the championship and season was to watch our team rebound from a really slow first half of the season and rebuild confidence together,” Carbin said. “It’s really hard to win a conference championship and it takes a lot of hard work.”
Stephanie Doak, outside hitter for the Griffons, made her sophomore year memorable while leading the team in kills per set, points and attacks. She had 478 total kills and averaged 3.73 kills per set and had a total of 509 total points which is roughly 3.98 points per set.
“We definitely talked about numbers a lot this season and holding ourselves to a high standard.” Doak said. “That was a challenge for me and I was always trying to strive to get more for that game.”
Another player that made quite the impact was freshman Ali Tauchen, middle hitter, from Iowa City, Iowa. Coming into the season she didn’t know what to expect but hoped to make her impact on the team known and she did just that.
As well as being a middle hitter, blocking comes with that, and Tauchen made her point with 1.08 blocks per set. She takes pride in blocking because she thinks it changes the momentum and pace of the game. She said if she can get the rhythm back then that is more important than a point scored.
Tauchen was right behind Doak with a total of 362 kills, and an average of 2.72 kills per set. She also averaged 3.43 points per set.
“I love Steph, she is a great teammate,” Tauchen said. “Competing against her and all the other competitive athletes in the gym only raises your own level of play. I think that is one of the greatest things about this team. In the gym we are all competitors and push each other, and off the court we are all best friends.”
Western volleyball was also awarded at the beginning of the season a spot on the Team Academic Award list for the American Volleyball Coaches Association.
The team had to maintain at least a 3.30 cumulative team grade-point average on a 4.0 scale. They were one of eight from the MIAA to receive the award.
Western volleyball finished No. 25 in the AVCA Division II Coaches poll after winning 19 of their final 23 matches.
