The Shorter volleyball team is headed to the Final Four.

The Lady Hawks advanced past Trinity Christian with a 3-1 victory on Friday to earn an appearance into today’s National Christian College Athletic Association semifinals.

Shorter will face top-ranked Fresno Pacific (28-3) today at 10 a.m.

Shorter and Trinity were the top two seeds in play out of Pool B, with both teams suffering an early defeat to make this an elimination game for the right to play on Saturday.

Trinity took the first set 25-18, taking advantage of eight errors by the Lady Hawks and outhitting Shorter .296 to .159.

Shorter rallied to take the next three sets to claim the match – 25-19, 28-26, and 25-12.

The second set saw the Lady Hawks establish a quick 8-2 lead, before Trinity was able to tie the set and match the point scoring through a 15-15 tie.

The Lady Hawks scored 10 of the next 14 points to win.

The run was aided by four blocks from Leslie Welch and two kills from Anna Graham.

Shorter barely outhit Trinity in the third set, .286 to .271, and had to rally late to take the set.

The set was evenly matched with Trinity holding the slight 21-18 lead, with Shorter scoring the next six points, a run aided by two Jasmine Crook kills and Welch recording two more kills and another block.

Trinity mounted a run to take the set lead 25-24. Welch would go on to record three more kills and another from Crook to win the set for the Lady Hawks.

“Leslie Welch put us on shoulders at the end of the third set,” said head coach Jon Moseley. “She was crushing big kills past their double block when we had to score.

“It was the match of her life. Everyone else did their jobs as well, and we got a huge win against a very tough and talented team.”

The Lady Hawks jumped out to the big lead in the final set, at one time leading 15-5.

Match point was recorded when senior Jessica White took the pass and tallied her lone kill of the night.

Welch recorded the game-high 20 kills, one of two career highs she would record in the match to go along with eight blocks.

Welch would hit .545 for the match.

Graham was able to record 17 kills while hitting .467, while also providing four blocks.

Crook had 16 kills and 16 digs for her second double-double of the day.

Tanequa Whitman provided 21 digs, with Loren Olive adding 14 more.

Jordan Corder tallied 54 of the teams 60 assists. In the four matches played so far, she has averaged 41.25 assists per match.

Earlier in the day, the Lady Hawks posted a 3-1 victory over Malone.

Shorter (26-6) outhit Malone, .220 to .157, on the way to claiming the sets 21-25, 25-16, 25-19, 25-14.

The Lady Hawks dropped the first set, but rallied to take the next three, including hitting .312 in the deciding fourth set.

Tanequa Whitman and Loren Olive tied with a match high 16 digs, with Whitman adding two service aces and Olive adding one more.

Jasmine Crook totaled 16 kills and 15 digs, while also adding a season high of two service aces. The Lady Hawks were able to register eight aces on the match.

Leslie Welch added 12 kills and four blocks. Kelsey Kirk also recorded four blocks.

Anna Graham hit .348 while recording 11 kills.

Jordan Corder added 40 assists and eight digs; Dena Pierce also had eight digs.`