Rockhurst volleyball loses in NCAA semifinals

Rockhurst women’s volleyball put together a storied postseason run. But the Hawks’ run came to a halt on Friday night.

Rockhurst had reached the NCAA Division II Final Four for the first time in program history, but they were stopped in the semifinals by top-seeded Concordia-St. Paul, a powerhouse in D-II volleyball.

Concordia beat Rockhurst 25-17, 25-23, 31-29 at University West Florida Fieldhouse in Pensacola.

Concordia — which advances to Saturday’s championship match against Florida Southern — beat Rockhurst in straight sets, but the Hawks did not go out easy.

Rockhurst had a 22-18 lead in the second set but could not even up the match. And Rockhurst led most of the third set before dropping behind 22-24. But the Hawks rallied and went on a point-for-point exchange with the Golden Bears before fading down the extra stretch.

Karli Reichert led Rockhurst with 16 kills and four blocks, while Alyssa Woodman had nine kills and six digs. Anne Hellwege came up with a team-high 20 digs for the Hawks.

Concordia-St.Paul will be playing for its ninth national championship in the past 11 years.

Rockhurst, which had advanced the the Final Four with Thursday’s 3-sets-to-1 win over Flager (Fla.), finished the season at 32-8. Concordia improved to 33-3.

Rockhurst had one 14 of its previous 15 matches to reach the semifinals.

Hawks coach Tracy Rietzke has won 1,212 matches across 36 seasons as a college coach.

This story was originally published December 8, 2017 at 10:19 PM with the headline "Rockhurst volleyball loses in NCAA semifinals."