MARION, Ind. -- The cross-county rivalry between Indiana Wesleyan University and Taylor (Ind.) notched another classic as Indiana Wesleyan volleyball defeated Taylor 3-2 in the Crossroads League Tournament Championship match inside Luckey Arena.

The packed-out arena was loud and boisterous as the two teams battled for the league title and an automatic bid to the NAIA National Championship. Indiana Wesleyan claimed the win by scores of 25-16, 25-21, 19-25, 26-28, 15-10.

The Wildcats have won the past four league tournament championships and have won 11-of-13 since IWU head coach Candace Moats arrived in Marion 13 years ago. Moats has led the Wildcats to 12 league tournament championship matches and holds an 11-1 record.

Indiana Wesleyan quickly went up 2-0 in the match but Taylor responded with a win in game three to trim the deficit in half at 2-1. Indiana Wesleyan led 21-17 in game four and was on the cusp of claiming the victory in four sets. Taylor tied the score 23-23 but Indiana Wesleyan scored the next point to force a championship match point opportunity. Taylor survived and on their third match point opportunity TU scored the decisive point to force game five.

“When Taylor gets in action they are the most inspirational team in this conference,” said Moats. “They just have so much energy. And they had a lot of energy going into game five.”

Before the fifth set Moats and the Wildcats talked about what worked in the first two sets.

“We went back to what we were doing in the first two sets,” stated Moats. “We talked about it before game five. We asked the girls what they did right in the first two sets and what they did not in the next two. Their answers were the same. It’s easy math so we told them to clean it up and let’s do this.”

Indiana Wesleyan built an 8-4 advantage as the teams switched sides. Taylor would get no closer than three points the rest of the set. With Indiana Wesleyan leading 14-10 and holding its second championship match point opportunity, the lone senior on the team, Alijah Mulitauopele (SR/Colorado Springs, Colo.) blocked the final Trojan kill attempt to compete the 3-2 victory.

“She is our best blocker by far,” said Moats. “That was the coolest thing ever because she was so focused on it. She was centered on that hit and it couldn’t end any better.”

Remy Bucknor (SO/Euless, Texas) had a huge effort on Saturday with a career-high 20 kills and a .311 hitting percentage. Bucknor also had one solo and three block assists. Bianca Cifaldi (SO/Itasca, Ill.) finished with 13 kills and Kylie Portera (SO/Lake in the Hills, Ill.) added 11. Katey Holler (JR/Marion, Ohio) earned 28 assists and 15 digs while Emily Workman (FR/Tinley Park, Ill.) chipped in 27 assists and six kills. Ashlen Buck (SO/Brazil, Ind.) added 24 digs while Kelly Cypher (JR/Libertyville, Ill.) and Holler each served two aces.

No. 19 Indiana Wesleyan will play in their fourth consecutive NAIA National Championship. IWU finds out their opponent and location of their NAIA National Championship Opening Round match on Monday.