Westminster qualified for the NCAA Division III national tournament by capturing the championship of the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference postseason tournament Saturday night in Greenville, Ill. The No. 2 seed Lady Blue Jays downed No. 4 MacMurray (Ill.) 23-25, 25-17, 25-22, 25-18 in the title match.
Westminster reached the championship earlier Saturday by outlasting No. 3 seed Webster in a 25-23, 24-26, 25-23, 15-25, 15-9 semifinal victory.
"We played a really good tournament today," Lady Blue Jays head coach Natalia Koryzna said. "We knew it was going to take playing two solid matches against two really good teams to come out on top. I'm really proud of my girls and how they stepped up to the challenge and played their hearts out.
"We worked really hard to be in this position and it says a lot about our team and how we performed. We accomplished something at our school that hasn't happened in the last 21 years. I couldn't be more proud of my girls today."
Westminster (19-8) will open the Division III national tournament against the University of Chicago (26-3), ranked No. 2 in the AVCA Top 25 poll. Chicago will host the eight-team regional from Friday through Sunday.
Other matchups in the regional include: Otterbein (25-6) vs. Wisconsin-Whitewater (19-8), Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (26-3) vs. Washington (Mo.) (24-8) and Carthage (27-3) vs. Grinnell (26-4).
Senior outside hitter Ashley Kistaitis tallied 27 kills and 17 digs to lead three players with double-doubles for Westminster in the title win against MacMurray. Freshman outside hitter Eryka Wanyonyi supplied 17 kills and 16 digs, while senior setter Teresa Becker logged 48 assists and 13 digs.
Junior middle blocker Natalie Needy added 11 kills and sophomore defensive specialist Erica Schrader recorded 28 digs.
Wanyonyi paced the Lady Blue Jays with 21 kills and 19 digs in the semifinal victory against Webster. Kistaitis provided 18 kills and 19 digs, while Becker accounted for 57 assists and 20 digs.
Needy also registered a double-double with 10 kills and 11 digs. Schrader and junior outside hitter Allie Kennebeck finished with 24 and 12 digs, respectively.
Wanyonyi was named the SLIAC newcomer of the year and was joined on the all-SLIAC first team by Kistaitis and Becker. Needy was a second-team choice and junior middle blocker Sarah Rivers was selected to the third team.