By Chris Schmidbauer, Sports Information Director
Rochester, MN -- The No.1 seed Owens Express continued their dominant stretch, this time defeating Queensborough in the NJCAA Division III Quarterfinals. The Express swept the Tigers in three sets, winning each by 10 points or more.
In Set #1 the Express jumped out to a 16-8 before Queensborough called time out. Owens would close the game on a 9-3 run to take the first set 25-11.
The Tigers wouldn't fair much better in the start to the second set. Owens would again jump out to a sizable lead at 11-4. The Tigers would claw back to within five points at 13-8. The Express would push the lead back to 17-9 after a four point run. The Tigers would get with four of Owens at 17-13. But the Express would close on another strong run, outscoring Queensborough 8-2, to take the set at 25-15 and go up 2-0.
In the third set, the Express and Tigers would trade points early on, but the Express would begin to assert their dominance midway through the game. The Express would push their lead to 16-8. Queensborough would get within 16-10 before Owens would move the lead to 22-12. The match point might have been the best of the night. Kara Schafer's serve landed an inch inside the line to put an end to the third set and the match at 25-13 and 3-0.
Freshman Kayla Bekier continued her emergence on the attack, as she led the Express in kills with nine in the match. Michaela Eisenhauer was right behind her in the stat column with eight kills of her own. The sophomore also had six digs on the afternoon as well.
Summer Sweeting, as usual, was the team leader in assists and service aces. Sweeting has 21 assists and three aces, all which came in the first set. As a team, the Express would garner six total, with Kiah Wendel adding two and the aforementioned ace by Schafer. Wendel also led the team in digs with 14.
Shyah Wheeler and Mornay McBroom were tough at the net as well with McBroom leading the team with four blocking assists and Wheeler finishing with three.
With the win, the Express are now 38-6 on the season.
Owens now moves on to the NJCAA Division III National Semifinals. Owens will play the No. 4 seed, the Rochester Yellow Jackets. Rochester defeated Rock Valley on Thursday evening, 3-1. The team much like Owens is on a dominant run as well. While the Express have won 13 matches in a row, Rochester has won nine straight.
First serve for the match is set for 5 PM CST or 6 PM EST tomorrow evening from the UCR Regional Sports Center in Rochester.
Interested fans can watch the match on NJCAAtv.com. The website is offering live streaming of every match for the tournament. Broadcasts can be purchased for $4.99 for a single game or $14.99 for the entire tournament. The games can be watched online or on a phone or tablet by downloading the NJCAAtv app.
For more information on the tournament, fans can click here.
Stay tuned to OwensExpress.com as well as our social media pages on Twitter or on Facebook for the most up to date information.