SIOUX CITY, Iowa -- No. 19-ranked Indiana Wesleyan University closed out the 2014 season tonight in its third pool play match at the 2014 NAIA Volleyball National Championship held at the Tyson Event Center in Sioux City, Iowa.

Indiana Wesleyan played No. 18-ranked Jamestown (N.D.) on Thursday. IWU won the match 3-1 by scores of 25-22, 13-25, 25-19, 25-22. Indiana Wesleyan ends the season with a 34-9 record while Jamestown finishes at 25-9.

Both Indiana Wesleyan and Jamestown knew coming into tonight’s match that they would not advance to the 12-team single-elimination tournament that begins on Friday. The two teams each lost to No. 6-ranked Missouri Baptist and No. 7-ranked Northwestern in their first two matches of pool play and those two teams clinched spots in the next round of the championship.

Despite not advancing out of pool F, Indiana Wesleyan had a very strong showing on the national stage. Indiana Wesleyan forced Missouri Baptist and Northwestern (Iowa) to four set contests during the first two days of pool play.

“I’m grateful that my young team got to come out here to be able to experience this,” said IWU head coach Candace Moats. “Now as we build we have something to talk about for next year. Now we have experienced it out here and know what it takes. This will build passion to work in the spring and summer workouts. We can say that we are becoming a national team and we want to keep that tradition going. This is another piece to build on.”

The Wildcats scored six of the first eight points in the opening set and did not surrender the lead. The lead grew to seven points on three different occasions, the last of those coming at 20-13. But the Jimmies reeled off six straight points to suddenly close to within one at 20-19. But a Jimmies’ hitting error on the next point gave the Wildcats a two point cushion as they went on to win the set 25-22. The Wildcats won all three opening sets at the national tournament.

The second set proved to be all Jamestown. They scored seven of the first 10 points in the set and eventually led 17-7. The 25-13 win was the largest lead of the set for Jamestown.

Indiana Wesleyan rebounded in the third set with an easy victory of their own. IWU scored the first five points of the set and seven of the first eight. Indiana Wesleyan grew the led all the way to 20-9 before a late Jamestown surge made the score much closer as IWU won 24-19.

After an early back and forth effort in the fourth set the Wildcats took a 12-7 lead and never relinquished it. The Wildcats built leads of six points on four different occasions but the Jimmies fought back and made it a one point set at 19-18. But Kylie Portera (SO/Lake in the Hills, Ill.) served an ace that ignited a 4-1 run for a 23-19 lead. Bianca Cifaldi (SO/Itasca, Ill.) ended the match with a kill for the 25-22 win.

“Our goal tonight was to win the final match of the year,” said Moats. “It’s very rare to get to win your last match of the season. It showed that we don’t quit even though we had nothing to play for regarding the tournament, but we still had everything to play for for the Lord. We wanted to give it all and play very passionate.”

The young Indiana Wesleyan team is in great position for the future as nearly the entire team is set to return in 2015. For a team the won both the Crossroads League regular season and tournament championships and advanced to the NAIA National Championship, they graduate just one senior in Alijah Mulitauopele (SR/Colorado Springs, Colo.).

“I am really hopeful for the team next year,” said Moats. “We have a lot of togetherness and have built something very strong within this young team. They now see the talent that they have and the ability that they have. I think it will generate motivation. The best motivation is when the teammates see what they have and now they want to build on that together and make something special. I am very excited for the future.”

Indiana Wesleyan ends the 2014 campaign with a record of 34-9. IWU advanced to its fourth consecutive NAIA National Championship in Sioux City and has won at least 30 matches in each of the last five seasons.