Cal State San Bernardino Advances to NCAA Division II Title Game
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The No. 4-seeded Cal State San Bernardino Coyotes defeated top-seeded and tournament-host Alaska Anchorage to advance to the NCAA West Region Championship Game.
With a win over UC San Diego in the first semifinal match of the day, Western Washington will face the Coyotes in the Title game.
Cal State San Bernardino 3, Alaska Anchorage 2
Courtesy – CSUSB Sports Information
For the 15th time in the last 16 seasons the Coyotes will appear in the West Region volleyball final.
No. 22-ranked CSUSB fought back from a two-set deficit and rode a wave of momentum in Saturday night's 3-2 win over top-seed and host Alaska Anchorage before a crowd off 2,256 at the Alaska Airlines Center.
Now the only team standing in the way of a trip to the NCAA finals in Tampa, Fla., is second-seed Western Washington. Match time for Sunday's West Region title is 5 p.m. Pacific time.
All-West Region standout senior Alexandra Torline led the Coyotes with a season-high 30 kills, along with 18 digs and two block assists in their 26-28, 21-25, 25-17, 25-16, 15-12 victory over the ninth-ranked Seawolves, who finished the season 27-3.
Sophomore outsided hitter Lauren Nicholson recorded 21 kills and 15 digs as the Coyotes set a team-season high of 96 digs to assist on their defensive effort.
And it couldn't be lost that senior Kaitlyn Christner, who stepped into the defensive specialist position last month, led with a team-season best 29 digs.
CSUSB twice had set point in the opener, but UAA showed why it was the top team in the West for most of the season. At 26-26, UAA's Taylor Noga had an ace and Leah Swiss added a kill for the win.
In the second, UAA grabbed the lead from the outset and never trailed to go up 2-0.
Torline, who had 10 kills through two sets, keyed the Coyotes with seven in 14 attacks in the third. Tied at 3-3 in the set and with Abbey Volkommer serving, CSUSB scored six straight points to go ahead 9-3.
Nicholson gave the Coyotes their largest lead of the set with a kill at 21-10 and CSUSB stopped UAA's momentum with a third-set win
The fourth was much of the same as Torline again led with eight kills. CSUSB took the lead for good on a Nicholson kill that put the Coyotes ahead 3-2. CSUSB hit .442 on 21 kills, just two errors in 43 attacks and defensively stunted UAA at just .190.
With the match tied at 2-2, the Coyotes took the fifth set lead early, going ahead with four straight points, thanks to a pair of kills from Torline.
Nicholson later added three successive kills to push the lead to 9-4. UAA didn't give up and got to within two (13-11) on a service ace from Noga.
But after a CSUSB timeout, Torline had a kill, and following a Coyote service error, Torline finished the night with her 30th kill for the victory.
Junior All-CCAA middle blocker Malika O'Brien had 11 kills with three block assists, while freshman setter Jayann DeHoog had 62 assists with eight digs and two block assists with a pair of kills.
Senior Ashley Solis had three kills with 14 digs, and senior All-American Brenna McIntosh had six kills with three block assists.
Western Washington 3, UC San Diego 2
Courtesy – UCSD Sports Information
Another successful season for the UC San Diego women's volleyball team came to a close Saturday as the Tritons were defeated in five sets by 16th-ranked Western Washington in an NCAA West Regional semifinal at the Alaska Airlines Center.
Scores of the match were 16-25, 25-23, 17-25, 25-12 and 15-8.
UCSD, the region's sixth seed, went 20-12 overall in 2015. With its fourth consecutive victory, second-seeded WWU is now 25-5.
UC San Diego hit .270 (55-17-141) over the first three sets, but swung at just .041 (16-13-74) in sets four and five combined. The Tritons finished at .191 (71-30-215) for the night. On the other side of the net, Western Washington hit .273 (63-7-205) overall. The Vikings had no errors in the final two sets, hitting .385 (15-0-39) in set four and .370 (10-0-27) in the final frame.
For the second-straight day, Danielle Dahle was the Tritons' offensive standout, finishing with a match-high 25 kills. The senior outside hitter also had 14 digs and an ace. In Friday's quarterfinal win against No. 18 Sonoma State, Dahle led all players with 20 kills.
Senior middle Kamran Cooper totaled 15 kills, while junior outside Meagan Wright had 13 kills and 14 digs. Senior setter Heidi Sierks amassed 63 assists and 15 digs.
The Tritons held a 119-98 advantage in digs. Sophomore libero Amanda Colla and freshman libero Kayla Evans each had career-highs with 41 and 25 digs, respectively.
Four Vikings had 10 or more kills including Abby Phelps (16), Rachel Roeder (15), Joellee Buckner (10) and Jennica McPherson (10). Phelps added 22 digs, McPherson had 17 and Buckner 16 as all completed a double-double.
Western Washington out-blocked UC San Diego 11-1. Kayleigh Harper had eight (one solo) and Roeder had four.
UCSD, which has advanced to the NCAA postseason in 33 of the last 35 years, is 7-5 all-time against WWU.
The Tritons were 0-6 in five-set matches this season.
It was the final career match for Cooper, Dahle, Sierks and libero Bailey Turk.