The Thunder women's volleyball team is returning to the NCCAA DII National Championship for the 15th time after winning the NCCAA Central Region Championship this past weekend. 

MCC goes in to the tournament as the #2 seed playing in Pool B with #3 Arlington Baptist University, #6 Boyce College, and #7 Faith Baptist Bible College.

Pool play will begin on Wednesday, November 15th with the Thunder's first match at 3:30pm vs #7 Faith Baptist Bible College, followed by a match at 7:30pm vs #6 Boyce College. MCC will wrap up pool play on Thursday, November 16th with a match at 3:30pm vs #2 Arlington Baptist University. Should MCC finish #1 or #2 in their pool, they will advance to the semi-final match on Friday, November 17th. 

"This is such an exciting time for our team," stated Coach Sanders. "It is always an honor and privilege to make it to the National Tournament. The team has been focused and working hard this past week in preparation for the tournament. We are eager and ready to get to Joplin and make a run for the National Championship!" 

You can follow all the action of the tournament here: NCCAA DII Volleyball Championship

After an excellent weekend for the Manhattan Christian College Thunder, the Volleyball team walked away with their 9th Midwest Christian College Conference Tournament Championship. Defeating Emmaus Bible College in the semifinals on Friday October 27th, a night they also honored four members of their program. Seniors Roni Harris and Dani Hepner, junior Mia Tapko and team manager Zoe Coffman. On Championship Saturday, the Thunder swept Calvary University to take home the hardware. 

All-Conference Team awards were handed out to five MCC Volleyball players. Honorable Mention went to Hannah Beukelman, 2nd Team honors when to Roni Harris and Hali Bloomdahl received 1st team honors. Liv Lubbers was named MVP of the Conference. 

MCC heads into the Central Region Tournament this weekend, hosted by Kansas Christian College. Manhattan will play Saturday, November 4 at 1:00pm against KCC. With a win they will advance to the Championship game at 5:00pm. 

The Men's Soccer team also competed in the MCCC Conference Tournament up in Ankeny, IA over the weekend. A very tough weekend that resulted in both games being decided with penalty kicks. Kicking off the tournament against #2 seed Emmaus Bible College finishing the game 2-2 but MCC came out ahead in PK's 5-4. The championship match was against #1 Faith Baptist Bible where after a 1-1 regulation score they headed into 2OTs. Sadly the Thunder fall short in the PK 1-3. 

Five Manhattan players were named to the All-Conference Team; Hagan Dyer and Chris Sosa named to the 2nd team. 1st team honors went to Cristian Gutierrez, Chris Smith and Kante Basubeche. 

The NCCAA Central Regional Tournament starts today for the Thunder. They will play against Spurgeon College at 7:00pm in Overland Park. Should the team win, they will advance to the Championship match against Kansas Christian College on Friday, November 3rd at 1:00pm. 

Check our social media and website for all updates on the tournament. Best of luck to both teams this week! 

Another stellar regular season wrapped up over the weekend for the Manhattan Christian Volleyball team. The Thunder swept Randall University to bring the overall record on the year to 20-3, and finishing undefeated in the Midwest Christian College Conference 10-0. Focus is now shifting to post season play as Manhattan Thunder Athletics host this years MCCC Tournament, starting Friday October 27 and finishing Saturday October 28. 

With the #1 seed, MCC get a bye and will play in the Semifinal match at 6:45pm Friday against the winner of #4 Emmaus Bible College and #5 Ozark Christian College. A win would send the Thunder straight to the Championship match on Saturday at 2:30pm against the winner of match 3 of the day that #2 Faith Baptist will play vs the winner of match 1. But a loss would have them playing for 3rd place at 12:15pm. 

All games will be livestreamed on the MCC Network. For any updates, check out our social media accounts. 

MCCC Tournament Seeding:

#1 Manhattan Christian 

#2 Faith Baptist Bible

#3 Calvary University

#4 Emmaus Bible

#5 Ozark Christian

#6 Barclay College

The Thunder volleyball squad is off to another great start this 2023 season. In the fifth annual Thunder Invitational hosted at MCC, the squad finished 2-2. As always the Thunder Invitational provides highly competitive matches for the team to start their season off! The weekend brought four NAIA teams to Howie's Activity Center, Cottey College, Sterling College, Stephens College and Central Christian College. 

MCC started Friday with matches against Cottey College and Sterling College. 

The Thunder defeated Cottey College in four closely contested sets, winning 25-21 20-25, 25-23 and 26-24. Sophomore middle Hali Bloomdahl led the offense with 20 kills and .359 attacking percentage. Sophomore outside Liv Lubbers contributed 13 kills and 16 digs. Senior libero Roni Harris had an incredible 40 digs. Freshman setter Josie Mehl had 13 digs and 45 assist. Freshman defensive specialist Jozie Kanode added 10 digs and 1 ace. 

Next up for the Thunder, was Sterling College. After starting the match over 2 hours late due to the competitive matches earlier in the day, MCC handled themselves well but were defeated by Sterling in three sets 16-25, 19-25 and 23-25. The offense was led by Lubbers with 13 kills and Mehl had 6 kills. Harris notched another 20 digs while Lubbers added 13 digs. 

Saturday would bring two more matches, Stephens College and Central Christian College. 

The Stephens match was a back and forth battle with Stephens eventually coming out on top. The Thunder dropped the match 23-25, 25-18, 16-25 and 21-25. Lubbers had 13 kills, 3 aces and 14 digs. Bloomdahl added 9 kills and 6 blocks. Freshman outside Jaiden Brewer and junior right side Mia Tapko both added 8 kills each. Kanode was strong defensively with 10 digs. 

Last up would be Central Christian College. MCC would come away with the win in four exciting sets, winning 25-18, 25-17, 20-25, and 25-21. Libbers led the offense with 16 kills and added 16 digs. Bloomdahl along with sophomore middle Hannah Beukelman both notched 9 kills each along with 5 block between the two of them. Freshman defensive specialist Jacie Hurla added 15 digs and Harris finished with 23 digs. 

"Going 2-2 against the tough NAIA competition was incredible for this young team. We played the entire roster this weekend and held our own in every match. This young team has loads of potential and this weekend pushed and grew our team tremendously. I was incredibly proud of our level of play, composure and outcome of all of our matches!" stated Coach Sanders. 

The Thunder defeated NCCAA Central region opponent, Kansas Christian College in three straight sets last night. Up next will be Midwest Christian College Conference opponents this weekend in the MCCC Conference Classic. MCC will play Emmaus Bible College on Friday evening at 6:00pm and Faith Baptist Bible College on Saturday at 1:00pm.