On Friday night in Holland, the Alma College Volleyball team faced the daunting task of going to the gym of the #3 ranked volleyball team in the country and having to defeat them in the league semi-final playoff match.

Hope College spoiled Alma's dreams by dispatching the Scots by a margin of 3-0 (12-25, 9-25, 15-25), ending the visitors season. The Scots finished the 2014 campaign with a final record of 15-18, while the Flying Dutch improved to 28-1 on the season. Hope now plays Calvin College on Saturday for the MIAA Championship.

"We had a tough night as I thought we played really tentatively, especially in the first two sets," said Alma Head Coach Sarah Dehring. "We started out pretty well in the third set, but they had some runs that we had a hard time responding to with offense. Overall, we hit negative and that makes it very difficult to win matches.

"Bright spots tonight included Hannah Guilford and Mary Dulzo, who I thought both played well for us. We had some very positive things happen this season and we know what we need to improve on to play at the level of a team like Hope. Making the playoffs is always a goal and now we will look to go a step further next season."

In the first set, Alma fell behind 5-0 and then 10-2 before making it interesting at 10-6 after a kill by Jr. OH/DS Hannah Guilford (Hartland/Hartland). The Flying Dutch then went on a 10-3 run to make it a 20-9 contest before closing out the first set 25-12 victory.

The Scots jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the second set after a kill by So. RS/OH Kendall Sells (Muskegon/Mona Shores). However, Hope was not to be denied on this evening and proceeded to outscore the visitors by a margin of 24-5 the rest of the way to take the second set by a final score of 25-9.

Down two sets, the Scots could have easily packed it in and gone quietly into the night. However, this Alma team does not quit and the third set was very interesting from the beginning. After falling behind 4-1, the Scots fought back and ultimately tied it at 12-12 after an attack error by Hope.

However, seven subsequent attack errors led to a Flying Dutch 13-3 run and a 25-15 set win, giving the home team a 3-0 match triumph. Despite fighting valiantly, Alma's season was done and Hope moved on to the Championship.

Guilford had seven of Alma's 14 kills in the loss, while So. S Mary Dulzo (Novi/Mercy) had a team-high eight assists to go with 10 digs. So. DS/L Molly Lark (Middleville/Thornapple-Kellogg) paced the Scots with 12 digs, while Guilford had nine.