NORTH MANCHESTER, IND. – A kill from junior outside hitter Courtney Chowning (Yorktown, Ind.) Saturday, Oct. 31, will become a permanent part of Manchester University history.

With that point inside Stauffer-Wolfe Arena, MU's 2015 Spartans stopped a six-year hiatus for the program of being in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference postseason tournament. MU's 25-21, 25-19 and 25-15 victory over the visiting Quakers of Earlham College cemented the Black and Gold (10-16 overall, 4-5 HCAC) as the tourney's sixth seed.

"This is a nice opportunity (for all of us)," Coach Bryndon Paulsen said. "It's a tribute to the hard work this team has put in … getting better (throughout the year). I can't stress that enough. We're playing some of the best volleyball we've played all season right now which is another outcome of that hard work."

Chowning's final kill was one of 10 for her, as she narrowly missed one of the patented kill-dig double-doubles she's been known to produce, tallying nine defensive stops of EC attack attempts. Fellow outside hitter Sarah Pruden (Noblesville, Ind.), wrapping up her home career, smashed 11 kills with a glittering .364 attack percentage, and the freshman duo of middle hitter Hannah Tevis (Royal Center, Ind.) and outside hitter Haley Duncan (Albion, Ind.) registered seven each.

"We got out to a good start offensively," Paulsen said. "Sarah, at one point, was five out of her first five attacking, and the rest of the team got rolling, too. Earlham kept coming at us, though, chipping away. It was a good team effort."

The Black and Gold still awaited their quarterfinal round opponent at the conclusion of Saturday's action. Complete postseason tournament information will be available at www.muspartans.com, Sunday, Nov. 1.

NOTES: Pruden and Tevis joined Chowning in the 200-kills-plus category at match's conclusion. The trio marks the first time since 2010 that the Spartans have had three players total 200-or-more kills … The win moved MU into the double-digit category, a program first since 2012.