ATLANTA, Ga. - Brooke McKee had a career-high 27 kills, with the last on match point up 14-13 in the fifth, as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps volleyball team captured a dramatic 25-11, 25-27, 26-28, 25-20, 15-13 win over Transylvania on Thursday afternoon in the opening round of the NCAA Division III Regionals, hosted by Emory. 

McKee broke her previous career high of 22 kills set earlier this season, and recorded the highest total for an Athena since Aubrey Breitweiser had 29 against UC Santa Cruz in 2013. McKee also added a career-high 19 digs to lead the way for CMS, which improves to 22-6 on the season and moves on to face Emory in the NCAA Regional Semifinals tomorrow at 7 p.m. local time (4 p.m. Pacific). Transylvania, which entered the NCAAs riding a 13-match win streak, sees its season end at 22-8. 

In addition to McKee's big numbers, Dede Carranza broke the CMS career record for digs with her first one of the match, after coming in tied with Megan Coleman (2011-14) with 2121 in her career, finishing the match with 32 and raising her career total to 2153. Georgia McGovern also reached the 1000-assist plateau this season for the second year in a row, one of only two setters in program history to achieve that milestone, along with Natalya Preiser, who did it three times from 1992-94. McGovern had 60 assists, one off her career high, to raise her season total to 1053. 

With the fifth set tied 10-10, McKee picked up a kill for an 11-10 lead, and then had two straight kills to make the score 13-11. After Brenna Bell and Solvej Eversoll had a block to make it 14-11, Transylvania had two kills to erase two match points and force a CMS timeout. Coming out of the timeout, the Athenas had a clean service reception from Shae Delany, and McGovern set up McKee on the outside, who went cross-court into the corner for the final point of the match to advance CMS through. 

The fifth set began with a block from McKee and Eversoll, who tied her career high with 10 blocks, before Transylvania got three points in a row for a 3-1 lead. McKee had her career high 23rd kill to pull within 3-2, and Bell followed with a kill to get CMS level at 3-3. The Pioneers earned their second 3-0 run of the set to go ahead 6-3, but McGovern had a kill to start a 4-0 Athena run to swing the pendulum back towards the Athenas. Bell had a kill to tie it 8-8 and Delany had a kill and an ace to put CMS ahead 10-9.

CMS looked like it was on to an easy win after starting the match with the first 11 points and cruising to a 25-11 win in the first set, but then found itself down 2-1 heading into the fourth after losing two straight sets in extra points. The Athenas turned the momentum early in the fourth with a 6-0 run to take a 7-1 lead, with Delany tallying three kills during the run. CMS led by as many as eight (14-6) before the Pioneers closed to within 14-10 with a 4-0 run. They got as close as three twice, the second at 19-16, but Dani Beder started a 3-0 run with a kill, and CMS took a 25-20 win on a Bell kill. 

McKee had seven kills in 10 attempts in the first set to help CMS get off to the fast start. McGovern had two service aces in the 11-0 run to start the match before Transylvania was able to get on the board, and McKee finished off the set with a kill for a 25-11 win. 

Transylvania came from behind to earn a 27-25 in the second set to pull even. The Pioneers were down by four on two occasions (15-11 and 16-12), but went ahead 18-17 after a 6-1 run. After a timeout, Bell had three kills to erase three straight one-point leads for the Pioneers, leveling the match 20-20. An Ashley Murashige ace gave the Athenas back the lead, and Beder had two straight kills to give CMS a 23-21 advantage.

Transylvania rattled off the next three points to earn a set point at 24-23, but McKee staved it off with a kill. McGovern tied the match 25-25 with another kill, but the Pioneers were able to get the next two to win it 27-25 on a Cecilia Roberts kill to tie the match at a set apiece. 

The momentum carried into the third set as the Pioneers went ahead by six points twice (13-7 and 15-9), before CMS rallied back. McKee had a kill and a block (with Eversoll) and Bell had a kill to get the Athenas within 16-15, but Transylvania came right back after a timeout with four straight kills to go back up 20-15. CMS then rattled off a 6-0 run to take the lead, as McKee started it with a kill and tied it with two straight aces before Delany put the Athenas up 21-20 with a kill.

The Pioneers went ahead 24-22, before Beder erased three set points with kills at 24-22, 24-23, and 25-24. McKee erased another one at 26-25, but Cate Scheper had two straight kills to give the Pioneers another win in extra points, 28-26, for a 2-1 lead in the match. 

Delany had a double-double for CMS with 10 kills and 18 digs, while Beder had 12 kills in 24 attempts with no errors for a .500 hitting percentage. Bell added 13 kills, while McGovern had 11 digs and five kills to go with her 60 assists, one off her personal best set in a five-set NCAA match with Hope last year. 

Tomorrow's NCAA Regional Semifinal will be the rematch of a thriller played earlier this season at the East-West Battle hosted by WashU, which the Eagles won in four tightly-contested sets (28-30, 25-22, 25-23, 28-26). Trinity (Texas) and Berry will meet in the other regional semifinal, with the two winners meeting on Saturday in the finals for the right to move on to nationals, which will be held in Salem, Virginia from Dec. 3-6.