Lancaster, Pa - Cairn University's women's volleyball team defeated both regional rivals to defend their NCCAA East Region title.

Box Score | Baptist Bible vs Cairn
Box Score | Lancaste Bible vs Cairn

Things started at 2:30pm this afternoon and wrapped up a little after 8pm. In the day's opening match, #1 seed Lancaster Bible started the tournament with a 3-0 victory over #4 seed Valley Forge Christian. Then it was time for the Highlanders to defend their title.

Squaring off with fellow Colonial States Athletic Conference opponent Baptist Bible for the second time in less than two weeks, the Highlanders had their work cut out for them. On October 17, BBC came out with a 3-1 win over Cairn. After about 40 minutes of play, it wasn't looking good for Cairn. Baptist had jumped out to a 2-0 lead with 21-25, 20-25 wins in the first two sets. With their backs against the wall, the Highlanders responded like champions. Led by Brigid Shehan, Cairn stormed to a 25-13 third set win. The Highlanders had a chance to even things up in the 4th set and made no mistake. Tying things up at 2-2 after taking the 4th set 25-16, it was nail biting time in the "anything can happen" 5th set. Both teams stayed within striking distance of each other throughout, with Cairn maintaining a slight lead for most of the set. In the end, Shehan and fellow sophomore Rachel Johnson powered the Highlanders to a 15-11 win and a chance to defend their title against Lancaster Bible College.

Against BBC, Shehan showed up everywhere for the Highlanders with 14 kills and 30 digs. Johnson committed only 2 attacking errors while logging 12 kills in the semi-final match and impressively recording 7 solo blocks.

BBC's Emily Gordon blasted 20 kills for the Defenders, but in the end, 37 attack errors and a strong Highlanders defense proved too much.

Onto the championship bout where the Highlanders met up with the Chargers of Lancaster Bible. Almost a month ago exactly, these two teams met in a tri-match at Valley Forge Christian on September 25. On that day, the Chargers came out on top 3-2. Backed by a boisterous home crowd, the Chargers jumped out to an early 4-0 lead, but after three straight attacking errors by LBC, Cairn looked to have avoided a disastrous start the the championship match. LBC wasn't done taking the game to the Highlanders though. The Chargers rolled off six consecutive points, opening up a 10-3 lead for the host. At that point, Cairn was unable to get any closer to Lancaster and the Chargers opened the championship game with a 25-17 win.

To start the second set, both teams traded blows with neither able to take hold of proceedings. That is until Cairn went on a momentum turning 12 point run, that not even two Lancaster Bible timeouts could not stop. With the score tied 12-12, the Highlanders raced to a 23-12 lead that led to a 25-15 win in the second frame.

With the match evenly balanced on a knifes edge at 1-1, both teams looked to gain the advantage heading into the latter stages of the final. Carrying their momentum from the second set, the Highlanders were the team able to grab the lead, bursting out to a 13-3 lead early in the third set. LBC and Cairn traded points until a 21-10 score line, at which point LBC engineered a 4-point swing. But any hopes of a tide turning comeback were dashed when the Highlanders ended the third set with their own 4-point streak, taking a 2-1 lead with the 25-15 win.

The Highlanders were only one set away from repeating as the NCCAA East Region champions, but from Lancaster's point of view they were one set away from forcing a 5th set showdown. Throughout the fourth set, neither team was able to create any big runs as the teams remained within 4 points at all times. In a wild ending, the Chargers were sitting on a 24-22 lead and one point away from claiming the set, but back-to-back kills by junior Emily Mayer knotted things at 24-24. After going down 24-25, Cairn responded with three straight points and retained their banner.

In the championship match, Emily Mayer led all Highlanders with 15 kills while Erin Greenwood notched 38 assists for the second match in a row, equalling her total from the BBC match. Defensively, both Ashleigh Colomina and Shehan tallied 21 digs.

Team Lauren led the way for the Chargers. Lauren Daniels logged 17 kills, followed closely by teammate Lauren Heliger with 15 kills.

With the win, Cairn as earned an automatic bid for the NCCAA national tournament held in Kissimmee, FL in two weeks time. However, before then the Highlanders have business to take care of in the Colonial States Athletic Conference playoffs. Cairn has little time to celebrate as the Highlanders face another tri-match against Rosemont College and Kean University on Saturday, October 27.  A win against Rosemont will secure a 4th place seed in the CSAC playoffs and home court advantage in the first round.