by Matt Koll
It’s that time of year again for PAC women’s volleyball. The cream has risen to the top and the field has been cut down to the four best teams in the league to battle it out for a championship. Top-seeded Westminster and 2-seeded Bethany will host semifinal matches on Thursday after earning first round byes. Westminster will host No. 5 Grove City at 7 p.m. in New Wilmington, while Bethany will host No. 3 Chatham at 7 p.m. in Bethany. The highest remaining seed to advance will then host the title match on Saturday.
With that, let’s take a deeper look at the semifinal squads.
#1 WESTMINSTER (26-4, 18-0 PAC) 
The Titans have become a volleyball juggernaut under the leadership of head coach Tammy Swearingen. They come in as the top seed for the fourth-straight season and have won five PAC championships since 2002. Oh, and they’re the two-time defending champs, taking the title in both 2019 and 2020-21.
More bad news for the rest of the league…they look primed to do it again. This season’s team is the PAC leader in many categories, including hitting percentage (.206), opponent hitting percentage (.088), kills and blocks. Individually, they’re led by a dynamic senior trio of Becky Adelman, Maya Steward and Samantha Kelly.
Adelman ranks in the top four of the conference in hitting percentage, kills, block and points. Steward ranks 9th in hitting percentage, 4th in kills, and 3rd in points while Kelly ranks 3rd in both assists and service aces. And for good measure, junior Kaylee Sciubba is one of the best hitters (3rd) and blockers (2nd) in the PAC.
They haven’t lost since a match since September 25th and maybe even more amazingly, they’ve only lost two individuals sets during PAC play all season long. It’s going to take a lot to knock them off.
#2 BETHANY (16-10, 13-5 PAC)
But Bethany is a worthy challenger. One of those sets Westminster lost was to Bethany on October 19. The Bison come into the tournament winners of their last five matches and earning that No. 2 seed, their highest since winning it all in 2016 as the No. 1 seed. They’ve got a rich volleyball history as well, winning the title in 2018 in addition to 2016.
Bethany ranks right behind leader Westminster in blocks, kills, and hitting percentage while leading the conference in service aces. This is a deep team full of the conference’s best individual contributors. Sophomore Emma Marthins is tops in hitting percentage and blocks. Senior Jess Moore is second in kills per set. Junior Alaina Torres is second in assists. Freshman Asia Crim is second in service aces.
“This season has been full of adversity for our team, and we have shown the ability to keep fighting through it,” said Bethany head coach Courtney Hilyer. “We had some tough losses throughout the year but didn’t allow those losses to affect our mentality. We have focused on controlling what we can, not looking ahead, and staying focused on the task at hand. I believe much of our success has come from the true team first mentality from this group specifically. It is an extremely special group that works well together.”
It’s got her thinking that they are capable of taking home the title.
“Although we are still a fairly young group, the steady improvement and resilience throughout the season shows me that we are capable of putting it all together at the right time,” Hilyer said. “One of my goals for every volleyball team at Bethany is for us to keep working to play our best volleyball at the end of the season. Nothing else really matters other than that.”
#3 CHATHAM (19-7, 13-5 PAC) 
The Cougars defeated Geneva 3-1 on Tuesday to advance to this semifinal round and made history doing so. It was the first time in school history that Chatham won a game in the PAC championship tournament.
A couple of sophomores showed up in a big way, Amelia Bogovich led the Cougars with a match-high 18 kills,while Meghan Dominek had a match-best 22 digs. PAC assist leader junior Shaelah Pepperman posted a match-high 40 in the win as well. In fact, Chatham comes in as the conference-leading team in assists, while ranking just behind Westminster and Bethany in hitting percentage and opponent hitting percentage.
In two matches against Bethany this season, Chatham lost 3 sets to none in both. But the score is a bit deceiving, as the Cougars lost by just 5 total points in the final two sets of their last matchup on October 14.
#5 GROVE CITY (19-11, 11-7 PAC)
The Wolverines had to really battle to clinch this third consecutive semifinal appearance. They pulled off the upset over No.4 Thiel on Tuesday, but it took all five sets to do it (25-19, 22-25, 14-25, 25-17, 15-11). This result was rather unexpected too, as Thiel had defeated Grove City in straight sets both times these teams met this season.
This is about as well-rounded a team as you’ll find, ranking in the top four in the conference in hitting percentage, opponent hitting percentage, assists, kills, blocks, and are the PAC leaders in digs. Individually, sophomore Anna DeGraaf is the conference’s 4th-best hitter, junior Faith Keating is among the top 10 in kills, digs and points and freshman Kennedy Kerr is among the conference’s best in assists and service aces.
The match against Westminster will be a rematch of last spring’s championship. Grove City fell in straight sets in both matchups this season.
