GREENVILLE, Ill. - The Spalding University volleyball team upset No. 1 seed Greenville College (22-9, 16-2 SLIAC) in a five set thriller to advance to the SLIAC Championship game for the first time in school history.
 
Spalding (18-15, 13-5 SLIAC) will take on the winner of the Westminster/Webster match tonight at 8:00 p.m. EST. You can watch the championship game live HERE.
 
The Golden Eagles and Tigers traded points back in forth in the first set.  Spalding jumped out to an 11-8 advantage, but Greenville scored five straight points to take a 13-11 lead. Greenville pushed their lead to five at 19-14, but the Golden Eagles battled back to cut the deficit to three points at 24-21. However, an SU service error gave the Panthers the first set 25-21.
 
Spalding bounced back in the second set, racing out to an 8-0 lead to start. The Golden Eagles pushed the lead to 11 points at 16-5, and led by double digits the rest of the way as they rolled to a 25-11 win to tie the match at one set apiece.
 
The Golden Eagles fell behind 4-1 to begin the third set, but clawed back to tie the set at 4-4.  Both teams battled back and forth and Spalding took their first lead on a Burkman kill at 10-9. Another Burkman kill pushed SU's lead to three at 14-11 and extended their lead to five on a Victoria Heitzman kill.  A Jessica Diehl kill put SU up six at 22-16 and the Golden Eagles took the set 25-18 on a Burkman kill to go up 2-1 in the match.
 
SU opened the fourth set with two consecutive block attempts going out of bounds and fell behind 2-0, but rebounded to tie the set at 2-2.  The Golden Eagles took a one-point lead at 5-4, but Greenville outscored them 8-3 to take a 12-8 lead mid way through the fourth set. Errors plagued SU as their deficit increased to 17-10 following a receiving error, but Spalding reeled off four straight points to cut the deficit to two at 17-15.  However, a block out of bounds and a pair of mishits helped Greenville end the run and take the set 25-17 to send the match to a fifth set.
 
The Golden Eagles took the first point of the final set, and took a 5-1 lead following a pair of kills and a Greenville block out of bounds.  A Burkman kill attempt out of bounds ended the SU run, but a Diehl kill gave Spalding a 6-2 advantage and the teams switched sides with Spalding holding an 8-3 lead. Out of the break, Greenville outscored the Golden Eagles 4-1 to cut Spalding's lead to two forcing Head Coach Bridget Yates to call a timeout. Spalding took the first point out of the timeout, but Greenville took it back on the next hit. Nevertheless, two straight points gave the Golden Eagles a 12-8 lead prompting a Greenville timeout.  Greenville responded with a point, but back-to-back E.C. Burkman kills gave Spalding game point and Spalding won the match on a Tiger receiving error.