ATLANTA, Ga. – The Southwestern Pirates did what fans have become accustomed to all season, winning all games at the tournament, only this time the wins gave them an outright SCAC Championship title for the first time since 1997.

#1 seed Southwestern opened the tournament on Friday night after a first-round bye, facing Rhodes in the afternoon who defeated Hendrix to advance. SU easily handled Rhodes, winning 3-1 (25-17, 25-16, 23-25, 25-15) to move on to the semi-finals against defending champion Trinity.

The Pirates pounced on the Tigers in game one, destroying Trinity 25-9. The stomping turned out to be a wake-up call for TU, but game two still went to Southwestern 25-23. After Trinity took the third set 23-25, SU sealed the deal and dethroned the Tigers with a 25-21 win in the fourth set to win the match 3-1.

The finals match faced #12 Southwestern against number-two seed and #13 nationally Colorado College. These two teams faced earlier in the season with SU emerging victorious in four games.

The Pirates jumped out to a 6-2 lead in the first set, but Colorado College pulled within one and then promptly tied the game at 16.

A Tiger block on SCAC Player-of-the-Year senior Audra Gentry gave Colorado a brief 18-17 lead, but a missed serve tied it back up and Gentry responded with an ace to give Southwestern the lead once again.

The game was tied again at 21 and remained close the rest of the way as Southwestern edged out the Tigers 25-23.

After the Pirates dropped game two 25-19 they jumped back to action in the third set and out to a seven point lead 19-12. SU was able to cruise the rest of the way and win game three 25-15 to go up two games to one.

Game four started out a little rocky for the Pirates as they fell behind 6-1 but were able to rally back to bring the game even at 7-7.

With a fresh start in hand Southwestern jumped on the opportunity and found themselves up 20-14 and seemingly with title in hand. The Tigers had one last rally in them, however, and pulled within three 20-17 and then within one at 24-23. First-year Rachel Thibodeau gave the Pirates the win with a kill off a block to hand SU the match 3-1 and SCAC Championship title.

Southwestern keeps their winning streak alive and extend it to 31 matches, improving to 33-3 on the season. The Pirates earn the automatic qualifier for the SCAC and advances to the NCAA National Tournament. Sites and match-ups will be announced on Monday.