Volleyball SLIAC Tournament Preview

Familiar teams will be on the court Saturday for the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC) Volleyball Tournament. For the fourth consecutive year Greenville College, Principia College, Webster University and Westminster College will be battling it out for the right to call themselves SLIAC Champions.

The Tournament
This year’s tournament field features the same teams from each of the last four seasons and includes identical match-ups from last year’s tournament. Host school and #1 seed Greenville will start the day against #4 seed Principia at 2 p.m. while #2 seed Webster and #3 seed Westminster will square off at 4 p.m. The SLIAC Championship game will be at 7 p.m. between the winners of the first two matches and can be heard live through Collegecasts HERE.

Tournament Tidbits

• This is the 12th time Greenville has made the tournament, holding a 6-10 all-time record.
• Principia is making their 18th appearance in the tournament with an 11-20 all-time record.
• Webster is the only program to make the SLIAC Tournament in all 19 years of competition, having won 10 times, and hold a 28-9 all-time record.
• Westminster is making their 12th appearance at the tournament and has a 13-9 all-time record.
• Greenville has now claimed at least a share of the league regular season title in each of the last four years.
• Webster has won the tournament a league record 10 times. Westminster has won twice while Greenville has one tournament title.
• Webster and Greenville have squared off in the championship match in each of the last two seasons, with Webster sweeping both matches.
• Principia is looking for their first SLIAC Championship. They have appeared in four championship matches, the last time coming in the 2008 season.
• Westminster will be looking for their first title since the 1998 season, which was also the last time the Blue Jays advanced to the championship game.

Westminster College Blue Jays
Westminster, picked fifth in the preseason poll, tied for third with Principia in the conference regular season with a 12-6 record while putting together a 17-11 overall record. The Blue Jays are led by first year head coach Curtis Madson and have won six of their last seven matches. They rank fourth in the conference in hitting percentage with a .205 clip and average 11.87 kills per set. The Blue Jays team features just one senior with two sophomores and eight freshmen.

The youth movement is led by the duo of Riley Lawrence and Amanda Kiso. Lawrence ranks third in the conference at 3.56 kills per set, leading the team with 342 kills this season. Kiso averaged 2.07 kills per set and was second in the league at 1.04 blocks per set. Sophomore Lexi Collier led the league in hitting percentage at .375 and averaged 2.57 kills per set. Freshman setter Kayla Reeg averaged 10.11 assist per set, topping in the conference.

Courtesy of the SLIAC SID