POINT LOOKOUT, Mo. - Grace College's volleyball team clinched their third straight trip to the NCCAA national championship game with a sweep over Sterling on Friday night.

The Lancers will take on Columbia International on Saturday at 1 p.m. (Central). Grace is looking to become the first team in 34 years to three-peat as NCCAA national champions.

Grace (19-16) was dominant in their semifinal victory over Sterling, leading nearly wire-to-wire in all three sets on their way to the championship berth.

Anna Elkin had the first three kills of the game for Grace, helping the Lancers to an early advantage. The Warriors managed to keep pace, but Callie Jo Celichowski hammered home a kill as that caused some separation and allowed Grace to begin to pull away.

Sterling struggled to consistently put the ball in play, expanding the Lancers' advantage. Emma Blackford served an ace to push Grace ahead 16-11.

Molly Hofmann helped the Lancers to five-consecutive points as they took a stranglehold on the game. Levyn Snow put Grace on the edge of victory, and a service error sealed the deal for the Lancers.

In the second set the Lancers blitzed out to a commanding lead, helped in part by an impressive kill from Hofmann that pushed the lead to 10-3. Snow added two more kills, and Reagan Owens served up an ace as the Lancers continued to hit on all cylinders. 

A pair of points from Livia Tate and Elkin pushed the Lancers lead to 19-9.The set was clinched by a point from Leah Henderson putting Grace ahead two sets to one.

In what proved to be the final frame the Warriors nudged ahead to an early lead, but the advantage was short lived.

An ace from Blackford and a pair of attack errors from Sterling flipped the lead and Lancers never looked back. Reese McCutchan added an ace of her own and Brea Harris notched a kill making the score 13-6 in Grace favor.

Elkin had both of her third set kills come in close order and Carsyn Witt kept the impressive service from Grace going as she delivered Grace's sixth ace of the match.

Sterling refused to go down without a fight and managed to rally back to within two points at 24-22. A well used timeout from Grace head coach Katie Hill stalled the momentum and led to a service error which sealed the match for Grace.

Elkin had nine kills which led a well balanced attack for the Lancers. Hoffman had six kills while Henderson and Snow each notched five kills. Tate and Celichowski had four. McCutchan had 16 assists.

Defensively Liz Schmidt added 12 digs while Celichowski,Tate and Henderson all had four blocks.

The Lancers attacked at a .218 clip and the Warriors had 18 errors.

The championship match will be a rematch of an early season thriller between Grace and CIU that went five sets.