DIII Season Ends with Calvin Victory

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net-set-bugWith the Calvin Knight’s victory over the Washington-St. Louis Bears in the DIII championship match, the DIII season has successfully drawn to a close.

But, what is NCAA Division III, or DIII? There are 433 DIII women’s volleyball programs, spread all across the USA, and each school has some great volleyball being played there. DIII is by far the largest component of women’s college volleyball, larger than DI, DII, or NAIA. Straight from the NCAA website we read the following explanation:

“Division III institutions have to sponsor at least five sports for men and five for women, with two team sports for each gender, and each playing season represented by each gender. There are minimum contest and participant minimums for each sport. Division III athletics features student-athletes who receive no financial aid related to their athletic ability and athletic departments are staffed and funded like any other department in the university. Division III athletics departments place special importance on the impact of athletics on the participants rather than on the spectators. The student-athlete’s experience is of paramount concern. Division III athletics encourages participation by maximizing the number and variety of athletics opportunities available to students, placing primary emphasis on regional in-season and conference competition.”

(http://www.ncaa.org/about/who-we-are/membership/divisional-differences-and-history-multidivision-classification)

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2016 Calvin Women’s Volleyball Roster

# Name Plays Yr. Ht. Hometown
1 Keilahna Castillo LB So. 5-4 Grandville, Mich.
4 Rachel Herrera DS So. 5-2 Schererville, Ind.
5 Abby Gorter OH Fr. 5-10 Woodbury, Minn.
6 Sierra Jorritsma RS Fr. 5-10 Redlands, Calif.
7 Sarah DeVries MH Fr. 6-2 Grand Rapids, Mich.
8 Abby Moore DS Fr. 5-6 Fort Wayne, Ind.
9 Jenna Lodewyk S Jr. 5-10 Villa Park, Ill.
10 Kristen Vyletel DS Jr. 5-7 Ann Arbor, Mich.
11 Laura Danhoff MH Sr. 6-2 Willard, Ohio
12 Emily Blankespoor DS Jr. 5-9 Grand Rapids, Mich.
13 Megan Van Solkema DS Jr. 5-7 Escondido, Calif.
14 Tessa Van Laare OH Jr. 6-1 Toronto, Ontario
16 Kelly Bos OH Sr. 6-0 Grand Rapids, Mich.
17 Alyssa Scholten OH Jr. 6-3 Byron Center, Mich.
18 Jamie Petrarca OH So. 6-1 St. John, Ind.
19 Ally Fea MH Fr. 6-2 Mechanicsburg, Pa.
20 Dani Rae Wascher OH So. 5-9 Albuquerque, N.M.
22 Anna Kamp OH So. 6-0 Orland Park, Ill.
23 Jessica Jackson OH So. 5-10 Grand Rapids, Mich.
  • Head Coach: Dr. Amber Warners
  • Assistant Coaches: Laura Bindon, Rey Castillo, Megan Rietema
  • Student Assistant: Kielley Lemkuil
  • Captains: Kelly Bos, Laura Danhoff, Jenna Lodewyk
  • Athletic Trainers: Joe Dykstra, Kerrie Clausen, Meghan Glynn

Here’s links to some of the stories about the DIII Women’s National Volleyball Championship match.

From the NCAA DIII website, the boxscore for the match:

(http://www.ncaa.com/game/volleyball-women/d3/2016/11/19/washington-st-louis-calvin).

From the NCAA DIII website, an article about the ending of the DIII season with the final match:

(http://www.ncaa.com/news/volleyball-women/article/2016-11-19/womens-ncaa-volleyball-championship-calvin-wins-diii).

Here’s an abstract of the final AVCA Poll for the 2016 DIII season. To see the final poll in its entirety, go to this link: (https://www.avca.org/polls/diii-women/11-22-2016.html).

AVCA Rank

School

Conference

Location

2016 W-L

1

Calvin Knights MIAA Grand Rapids, Michigan

33-1

2

Emory Eagles UAA Atlanta, Georgia

34-5

3

Washington-St. Louis Bears UAA St. Louis, Missouri 27-4

4

Southwestern Pirates SCAC Georgetown, Texas

26-7

5

Cal Lutheran Regals SCIAC Thousand Oaks, California 33-6

6

Northwestern-St. Paul Eagles UMAC St. Paul, Minnesota

28-6

7

Texas-Dallas Comets ASC Dallas, Texas 27-5

8

Mary Washington Eagles CAC Fredericksburg, Virginia 27-4

9

Colorado College Tigers SCAC Colorado Springs, Colorado 29-7

10

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Athenas SCIAC Claremont, California

27-11

11

Wisconsin-Whitewater Warhawks WIAC Whitewater, Wisconsin 34-5

12

Juniata Eagles Landmark Huntingdon, Pennsylvania 31-4

13

Wittenberg Tigers NCAC Springfield, Ohio

32-3

14 Eastern Eagles MAC St. Davids, Pennsylvania

25-6

15 Hope Flying Dutch MIAA Holland, Michigan

28-12

16

Trinity Tigers SCAC San Antonio, Texas 22-6
T17 Millikin Big Blue CCIW Decatur, Illinois

28-8

T17

Wisconsin-La Crosse Eagles WIAC La Crosse, Wisconsin 23-4
19 Elmhurst Bluejays CCIW Elmhurst. Illinois

27-7

20

Tufts Jumbos NESCAC Medford, Massachusetts 25-8
21 Hendrix Warriors SAA Conway, Arkansas

22-7

22

La Verne Leopards SCIAC La Verne, California 23-6
23 Wisconsin-Oshkosh Titans WIAC Oshkosh, Wisconsin

27-8

24

Ohio Northern Polar Bears OAC Ada, Ohio 32-6
25 Wisconsin-Stevens Point Pointers WIAC Stevens Point, Wisconsin

23-13

LET’S GROW VOLLEYBALL!

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