The women's volleyball team competed in the Region III Championship Tournament at Niagara Community College on Saturday and Sunday.
On Saturday, the Lady Raiders participated in pool play against Genesee, Herkimer, and Finger Lakes.
FMCC started with a strong 3-0 sweep of Genesee to get the day started. Unfortunately, Region 3 Player of the Year, Madelyn Avery, would sprain her ankle in the match taking her out of competition.
The Lady Raiders rallied around Avery to pull out another 3-0 victory over Herkimer. The final match of the day would be against #1 seeded Finger Lakes. FMCC gutted out multiple deficits to secure another 3-0 performance, 25-21, 26-24 and 26-24.
An undefeated 9-0 pool play would make the Lady Raiders the #1 seed heading into the Region 3 Championship game on Sunday against Broome Community College.
The Raiders fell in the first set, 19-25. In the second set, FM settled in and won 25-21. In the third set, Broome dominated and FMCC made a few mental mistakes and fell 16-25. The third set was a game changer for the Lady Raiders. They bounced back and fed off the bench energy to a dominating 25-17 win and it was tied up 2-2.
In the final set to 15, the Lady Raiders dug deep and took a 14-11 lead. Broome would not go away and rallied back 14-13. Aireana Muhlberger bumped a perfect pass over to Sadie Blowers on the left side of the net who pushed the ball into open space to secure the Region III District North A Title, 15-13!
Aireana Muhlberger, Deandra Myers, and Krystal McSpirit were named to the All-Tournament Team. Sadie Blowers earned tournament MVP.
"The team played with incredible determination, grit and heart throughout the entire weekend and left it all on the court. We couldn't be more proud of them," said Head Coach Tina Olyer.
The Lady Raiders will now head to the 2022 NJCAA Division III Volleyball Championship. The National Tournament will be held in Rochester, Minnesota on November 10-12th.
