Carthage wins cciw volleyball tournament, Earns NCAA Bid

KENOSHA, Wis. -- Carthage College won its second straight College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) Volleyball Tournament title Saturday in a 3-0 victory over Augustana. The win gave Carthage the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Carthage's winning game scores were 30-26, 30-20, 30-18. The Lady Reds finish the regular season with a 31-4 overall record (7-0 in the CCIW) while Augustana finishes 22-13 (6-1 in the CCIW). Augustana's 22 wins was the most since the Vikings finished 23-17 in 2002 and the best finish under Stacey Ruff whose team turned around from a 6-25 finish a year ago.

Ashley Kuehl led Carthage with 12 kills while teammate Rachel Swoboda had 11 kills against Augustana. Kelly Bauer had 27 set assists in the win.

Illinois Wesleyan's Jenna Passananti, Wheaton's Annie Himmelhaver, Augustana's Jaime Spolum and Mallory Thelander and Carthage's Kelly Bauer, Rachel Swoboda and Jori Simmons were named all-tournament. Bauer earned tournament MVP honors.

Carthage, tournament host for the weekend, will also host the NCAA Division III Midwest Regional Championship on Thursday-Saturday, Nov. 8-10.