No. 11 Taylor and No. 21 Marian Ready to Compete on Championship Saturday

Volleyball | Fri, Nov. 11, 2022 at 11:25 AM
| by Jake Chipka

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UPLAND, Ind. –  For the first time since 2014, the No. 11 Taylor (29-5) volleyball team has earned a spot in the Crossroads League Tournament Championship match, slated to unfold Saturday evening, November 12, at 6:00 pm inside Odle Arena.

Serving as the tournament’s number-one seed, Taylor will host the three-seeded, No. 21 Marian (23-5) in the championship match, which will mark the duo’s third head-to-head matchup in 2022.

Taylor and Marian have only squared off three times in a single season once up until this point in series history, when Marian swept the Trojans three-matches-to-none in 2020. Having beaten Marian in both regular-season matchups in 2022, Taylor will look to return the favor of a three-match sweep on Saturday.

The TU faithful have well-founded optimism that such a result will unfold inside Odle Arena this weekend, as Taylor has won each of its most-recent 24 home matches, including a perfect 15-0 record at home in 2022.

Taylor’s last loss at home, however, was to none other than Marian, who swept Taylor inside Odle on September 10, 2021. At that point in series history, the Knights had slain the Trojans in five-straight matchups, though a different storyline appears to be unfolding ahead of Saturday’s championship match.

Taylor and Marian first met this season in Upland on September 30, when the Trojans pulled off a commanding four-set win over the Knights to earn sole possession of first place in the Crossroads League. Marian won the opening set 26-24, after which Taylor swept the remaining three sets.

Along the way to victory, Taylor outhit the Knights 66-57 in the kill column, as Ryan Czerniak, Grace Ieremia, and Anna Frey combined for 42 of Taylor’s 66 team kills. Ieremia added an absurd eight blocks alongside 14 kills, while Czerniak placed in tandem 15 kills and five blocks of her own.

Meanwhile, Kacy Bragg posted one of her four 50-plus-assist performances of the season by totaling a match-high 56 in Taylor first matchup with Marian in 2022. Bragg pulled off that feat again, however, on October 29, when she orchestrated 50 assists that set up a total of 64 Trojan kills en route to a five-set win over Marian.

Taylor outhit Marian by 15 kills this time around, as Arlanda Faulkner went off for a match-high 20 kills struck at a…