Volleyball
The Case Western Reserve University volleyball team closed out its 2025 season with a statement win at the UAA Championship in Waltham, Massachusetts, securing a historic upset over Emory University and finishing fifth in the conference. The Spartans’ 3-1 victory over the Eagles snapped a 49-match losing streak against Emory that stretched all the way back to 1992, when current Head Coach Karen Farrell was a fourth-year on the Brandeis University team.
CWRU entered the weekend as the fifth seed and opened play on Saturday with a hard-fought five-set battle against fourth-seeded Carnegie Mellon University. Despite rallying to win the second and third sets, the Spartans fell 3-2. They rebounded strongly in their second match of the day, sweeping eighth-seeded University of Rochester in straight sets. Fourth-year co-captain and outside hitter Kalli Wall led the team with 30 combined kills across both Saturday matches, while fellow fourth-year and co-captain middle blocker Amanda Ngo contributed 21 kills and a team-high eight blocks. The win over Rochester secured the Spartans’ fourth consecutive winning season.
The highlight of the weekend, however, came on Sunday when the Spartans faced sixth-seeded Emory University in the fifth-place match. CWRU struck early and never looked back, seizing the first two sets before closing the match in four. Wall led the way in her final collegiate match with 16 kills and just one error. Ngo and fellow fourth-year middle blocker Kiya Levy each added seven kills, with Ngo contributing five blocks and Levy posting four blocks and two service aces. Third-year outside hitter Emily Goodpaster added 10 kills and helped anchor the offense, while second-years defensive specialist Sophia Datto, setter Avery Basinger and setter Elena Esquivel combined for 25 digs and 35 assists.
The win carried emotional significance for Farrell, who secured her 455th career victory at CWRU and 532nd overall, as well as for her team’s fourth-years. Wall concluded her Spartan career with 1,064 kills, ranking 12th all-time in program history. Ngo reached the 1,000 career point milestone during the weekend and ended her tenure with 832 kills, 319 blocks and the sixth-highest blocks-per-set average in program history. Levy wrapped up her career with 364 kills and 198 blocks over four seasons.
Meanwhile, rising talent shone through in players like Datto, who finished the year with 553 digs—the most by a Spartan in a single season since 2015—and is on pace to become the 22nd player in school history to record 1,000 career digs. Esquivel led the team with 703 assists on the year and Basinger added 402 more, setting a strong foundation for future success.
After ending the season with a 17-14 record and delivering one of the program’s most meaningful victories in decades, the Spartans leave Waltham, Massachusetts with momentum and pride, well-positioned to continue climbing within one of the nation’s toughest conferences.
Cross Country
The CWRU men’s and women’s cross country teams closed out a strong showing at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional Championships on Saturday at Tom Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Kentucky. Led by standout individual performances, both squads placed sixth among 37 teams, with first-years Francesca Taracila and Halina Tompkins, third-year Jacob Slater and second-year Donovan Crowley all earning All-Region honors—and three Spartans officially securing their spots at the 2025 NCAA Division III Championships.
On the women’s side, Taracila paced the team with a career-best time of 22:28.8 in the 6K, finishing ninth overall and earning one of the region’s top-seven individual qualifying spots for next week’s national championship meet. Tompkins joined her in earning All-Region recognition with a 26th-place finish, while fourth-years Arianna Holbrook and Ayla Grabenbauer were close behind in 41st and 42nd place, respectively. First-year Reid Smith rounded out the scoring for CWRU with a 46th-place finish. The team’s sixth-place regional result marks a three-spot improvement from last year, as the Spartans continue to rise among Great Lakes competition.
In the men’s race, Slater led the Spartans with an impressive third-place finish in the 8K, clocking in at 24:56.8 to secure his second-straight All-Region honor and his place at Nationals. Crowley was not far behind, placing seventh in a career-best time of 25:06.8 to join Slater in the NCAA Championship field for the second year in a row. Second-year Adam Esa narrowly missed All-Region distinction with a 36th-place finish, and first-year Jacob Porter and graduate student Mike Lombardi also scored for the Spartans, finishing 82nd and 88th, respectively.
Both the men’s and women’s teams entered the regional meet ranked fourth in the Great Lakes Region and matched their team finishes from last season on the men’s side. Individually, Taracila’s and Crowley’s breakthrough performances highlight the program’s depth, while Slater’s top-three finish reinforces his status as one of the region’s elite runners.
Slater, Crowley and Taracila will travel to Spartanburg, South Carolina, where the 2025 NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships will be held at the Roger Milliken Center on Saturday, Nov. 22. The men’s 8K race is set for 10 a.m., with the women’s 6K to follow at 11 a.m.