Aug. 31, 2002
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. - The Western Washington University volleyball team ran its streak of victories in the Coyote Classic to three Saturday before losing its final match, falling to host and NCAA Division II No.7-ranked Cal State San Bernardino, 30-17, 27-30, 30-24, 30-19.
Kim Ford had 23 kills to pace the Coyotes, who swept all four of their matches in the tourney.
Outside hitter Shannon Rowland (Sr., Bellingham/Meridian) had 11 kills for Western, but also had 14 attack errors. Middle blocker Meghan Evoy (So., Olympia/Capital) and right-side hitter Niki Smith (Sr., Beaverton/Aloha) each had 10 kills. Libero Nicola Parker (Jr., Auburn) had a team-high 27 digs.
"It's bittersweet but I feel like we didn't compete as well as we should have," said Western coach Diane Flick. "The basic summary of the match was that we made a lot of errors and didn't force many errors."
The Vikings, ranked No.19 nationally, swept Sonoma State, 30-23, 30-22, 30-27, in a match earlier in the day. They opened their season Friday with victories over No.10 UC San Diego and No.24 Cal State L.A.
It is the first time that Western has won more than one match in its season-opening tournament since 1996 when the Vikings won the Mile High Classic in Denver, CO, with four wins.
"We did much better than expected but we go away with the feeling of frustration that we could have done more," said Flick.
Against Sonoma State, Rowland led the Vikings with 13 kills and eight digs. Evoy added eight kills and a team-high .286 attack percentage. Kristy Carstensen (So., Puyallup) had four blocks in each of Saturday's matches.
Evoy, who had a total of 55 kills and 18 blocks in the four matches, was the only Viking named to the all-tournament team.
Western hosts its own Viking Invitational on Friday and Saturday, meeting UC Davis, Cal State Stanislaus and Brigham Young-Hawaii. It is the first home tournament for the Vikings since 1979.
