Wildcats, Coyotes Set for CCAA Volleyball Championship Rematch
SAN FRANCISCO – The second day of the 2017 CCAA Volleyball Championship saw Chico State and Cal State San Bernardino battle for semifinal victories to set up a rematch of last year’s finale that went the way of the Coyotes, 3-2. The match to determine the league’s NCAA Division II automatic qualifier is set for Saturday at 7 p.m., from the campus of San Francisco State.
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No. 3(N) Chico State 3, No. 4(S) Cal State LA 0
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Chico State post-game |
Cal State LA post-game
When the match started, it looked like Chico State and Cal State LA would be entrenched in a barn burner. But after the first set’s 8-8 tie, the Wildcats turned on the jets for a 9-0 run that set the tone for the remainder of the three-set match. That tone was one of efficient play on both sides of the ball, where Chico State hit an eye-popping .472 while holding the Golden Eagles to .043 hitting. The Wildcats came up big on the block as well, with a 14-3 advantage in the match.
“The girls played out of their mind, they played great,” noted Chico State head coach Cody Hein. “We had a huge fighting spirit which we knew that we were going to have to have against LA. They’re a passionate team, and we’ve seen them play that way both in the regular season and yesterday. They handled a pretty good Sonoma team so we knew we would have to have a fighting spirit … and the girls played really, really well.”
Five women hit over .470 in the match and five women recorded multi-block games as the Wildcats make quick work of their opponent. Freshman Kelley Jacome filled the stat line with 10 kills on .571 hitting and combined on four blocks. Fellow first year player Makaela Keeve recorded five kills while hitting 55.6 percent with seven total blocks. McKenna Carroll and Nicole Desrochers effortlessly directed the offense combining for 32 assists while the Chico State defense stymied the CCAA Freshman of the Year Karla Santos and the rest of her youthful LA Golden Eagles squad.
“I personally think she’s not just the Freshman of the Year in the conference,” remarked Hein. “She’s one of the best players in the conference. We had to slow down Santos … I think that was the key element toe the whole match was making sure we could slow down Santos, not just at the front line, but her serve.”
Santos paced the Golden Eagles with nine kills, but only managed a .179 hitting percentage. She was just one of three women on the Cal State LA roster to muster a positive percentage on the day.
“We had five hitting errors in the match,” added Hein. “You usually win sets with four or five hitting errors. We sided-out at 73 percent of the match – the numbers are off the charts. We were really, really efficient … a lot of stuff was working for us, and we passed excellently.
“We’re a smaller team. You have to pass well, you have to dig accurately for us to get into our offense and we were lights out.”
No. 1(S) Cal State San Bernardino 3, No. 2(N) Cal State East Bay 2
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Cal State San Bernardino post-game |
Cal State East Bay post-game
The semifinals nightcap didn’t disappoint, as Cal State San Bernardino and Cal State East Bay provided the first five-setter of the 2017 championships, and entertaining display in the No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup.
“Congratulations to Cal State East Bay on a great season,” started Cal State San Bernardino head coach Kim Cherniss. “They were a really, really tough opponent tonight, they played so well. I can’t say enough about some of the adjustments that Jim Spagle made.
“It was really a fun match because as coaches we had to be on our toes all the time, players had to be able to change schemes about 10 different times and I’m just really proud of our girls for trusting us and continuing to do what we were asking them to do even when sometimes we sounded crazy.”
After Cal State East Bay took the first set from the Coyotes, 29-27, and you knew it was going to be an exciting night. The set was just the second Cal State San Bernardino gave up in the last month, but the defending tournament champions regrouped to win the second and third frames to claim the advantage in the match.
In the fourth, Cal State San Bernardino held the 22-20 lead after Alexis Cardoza set up CCAA Player of the Year Lauren Nicholson, and it looked like the match momentum had firmly swung in favor of CSUSB. But the Pioneers had other ideas, reeling off a 5-1 scoring swing punctuated by a shot from Deja Thompson to force the deciding set.
With Nicholson capping the night’s action with an ace to give the Coyotes a 15-12 win in the frame, Cal State San Bernardino has secured a spot in the finals for the third-straight season. Nicholson went off for a career-high 31 kills with 17 digs, one of five women to scoop up double-figure digs on the night. But she wasn’t alone in filling up the box score, as Alexis Cardoza added 22 and Hailey Jackson added 14 to propel the team to the championship match.
“It’s interesting, she had 31 kills and we were like it’s tough for her tonight because they’re really keying on her, she’s struggling a little bit," remarked Cherniss. "But then I look at the stat sheet and I’m like oh my God, she was amazing. She continues to carry that load, and she carries it with a lot of grace, a lot of humility.
“It makes all the difference when players like [Cardoza] and [Jackson] kind of go off. 22 kills, that’s a career high for Lex too, and to do that hitting .400 and for Hailey at .440 through five sets in situations where the style of play that East Bay has, your transition is very rushed and very awkward and very difficult. For her to stay low error under that really speaks a lot about Hailey’s efficiency as an attacker. Lauren was spectacular, but we have relied on our depth all year.”
For Cal State East Bay, Thompson finished the night with 22 kills on .500 hitting and 10 total blocks while Kiki Leuteneker added 20 kills and seven digs. Pioneer senior Brandi Brucato finished with 28 digs and eight assists in her final collegiate match.