No. 1 Harvester Bees Pass Alexandria Tech Test, Play for National Title Saturday

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – Dallas College Eastfield's volleyball team has one match to put the finishing touches on a perfect season.

And what an ending it would be.

The No. 1-ranked Harvester Bees beat Alexandria Technical & Community College, 25-18, 21-25, 25-21, 25-15, in the National Junior College Athletic         Association Division III semifinals Friday at Alliant Energy Powerhouse to reserve a spot in Saturday's 6:30 p.m. national title match versus third-seeded Century College (29-4).

The Harvester Bees (34-0) saved their best for last in Friday's victory, hitting .324 in the fourth set to put a match that lay in the balance until the last few serves of the third set.

After Alexandria Tech (20-7) pulled within one, 22-21, in the pivotal third set, Eastfield's McKenzie Anderson banged down a set from Taryn Doiron. Brenly Walker had a kill on the next serve, and Azoria Davis' ace gave the Bees a 2-1 lead in the match.

It was a resounding answer to the Legends' second set victory. In that set, Alexandria Tech broke an 8-8 tie on Meaghan Winters' kill, and did so again at 11-11 on a block by Kailey Fischer and Adysen Tysdal. The Legends never trailed again in the set to even the match at 1-1.

But after Eastfield pulled away in the final serves of the third set, the Bees raced out to an 8-3 lead in Set 4 on a kill by Walker, who finished with nine putaways, 16 digs and four aces. The Harvesters maintained a five-point lead throughout the final set until Walker had an ace, Davis slammed down a kill and Kendall Wilson added another putaway to push the Bees' lead to 21-13. Anderson's kill on an assist from Doiron sent Eastfield to the title match.

Davis finished with 14 kills, 17 digs and two blocks. Anderson had 12 kills, and hit .423. Doiron had 37 assists and 10 digs. Ava Cole had 18 digs.

Kendal Kopp had 10 kills, and hit .310. Winters finished with eight kills and 13 digs. Kendall Buerman had seven kills and 10 digs.

The Harvester Bees are playing for their first national title since 2018 when they fell to Owens Community College in five sets.