Nov. 14, 2009
Box Score
BELLINGHAM, Wash. - Middle blocker Emily Jepsen (So., Kennewick/Kamiakin) had team-highs of 11 kills, three blocks and three service aces as Western Washington University ended its regular season with a 25-22, 25-19, 25-21 victory over Montana State University Billings on Saturday in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference volleyball match on Haggen Court at Sam Carver Gymnasium.
The Vikings, ranked No.8 in the latest official NCAA Division II West Region poll, completed their regular season 17-10 overall and tied for third with MSUB at 10-6 in the GNAC.
Western now awaits word of whether they receive one of the eight berths in the West Regional of the NCAA Division II National Tournament. The tourney selections are announced on ncaa.com Sunday night.
"I didn't think we'd be in position to have the committee decide," said Western coach Diane Flick. "I'm glad we've done enough to make it tough on them."
MSUB completed the regular season 17-11 overall and 10-6 in the GNAC. Outside hitter Devon Crotteau, who ranks fifth nationally and leads the conference in kills, had match-highs of 16 kills and 23 digs.
Western never trailed in the first set, and broke away from a 5-5 tie to lead the rest of the way in the second set. In the third set, the Yellowjackets held a 20-19 lead, but then the Vikings scored the next five points, capping the run on a block by Bailey Jones (Fr., Mukilteo/Kamiak). After a kill by Crotteau stopped the run, Jones closed out the match with a kill.
"We've been slowly getting better," Flick said. "To get better we needed consistency of play and eliminating more of our errors. Tonight we did enough of that."
Outside hitter Marlayna Geary (Fr., Tacoma/Bellarmine Prep) had 10 kills and 10 digs for Western, her fourth straight double-double and 13th of the season, and libero Allison Gotz (Jr., Bothell/Archbishop Murphy) had 17 digs.
Western setter Laurie Yearout (R-Fr., Spokane/Lewis & Clark) had 39 assists, nine digs, two kills and two blocks.
Volleyball: Seawolves Win School-Record 12th Straight
Jackie Matthisen had 21 kills including a rocket on match point as Alaska Anchorage earned its school-record 12th straight victory Saturday defeating Seattle Pacific 27-25, 28-26, 19-25, 25-22 at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex in Anchorage.
The Seawolves (14-2 in the GNAC) will take a 22-7 record into the NCAA West Regional playoffs, which will begin either Thursday or Friday.
UAA will join CCAA champion Cal State San Bernardino, PacWest champion Hawaii Hilo and five at-large teams in the eight-team field.
Pairings and the site of the tournament, most likely San Bernardino, will be announced Sunday sometime after 4 p.m. Pacific on the NCAA web site.
GNAC runner-up Seattle Pacific and Western Washington hope to join UAA in the eight-team field. The Falcons were ranked seventh in the final regional poll, while Western Washington was eighth.
WWU closed out its season with a win as middle blocker Emily Jepsen had team-highs of 11 kills, three blocks and three service aces leading the Vikings to a 25-22, 25-19, 25-21 victory over Montana State Billings on Haggen Court at Sam Carver Gymnasium.
The win pulled the Vikings (17-10, 10-6) into a tie for third place with MSUB (17-11, 10-6) in the final GNAC regular-season standings.
In other matches Saturday, Central Washington swept past Saint Martin's, 25-18, 25-20, 25-13, and Alaska Fairbanks outlasted Northwest Nazarene, 25-18, 13-25, 26-24, 15-25, 15-11.
In addition to Matthisen, Alaska Anchorage also got 15 kills from Cortney Lundberg and 10 from Marie Borowikov in its victory. Ashley Bates had six blocks and Stacie Meisner had 20 digs and three aces.
Seattle Pacific (17-11, 11-5) was led by Priscilla Collings with 21 kills and 19 digs and by Sarah Risser with 13 kills and 10 digs. Amber Johnson had five blocks.
Saturday's first two sets were knock-down, drag-out battles, with the Seawolves barely prevailing each time.
In the first, UAA rallied from a 16-12 deficit to take its first lead at 20-19. Even with a 24-22 lead, the Seawolves still needed four set points to secure the early advantage, finally winning on back-to-back attack errors by Risser.
In the second set, SPU rallied with four straight points to take a 24-23 edge before Lundberg answered with a resounding kill to tie it. Trailing again at 26-25, Matthisen sandwiched a pair of kills around another Risser error, giving the home team the final three points and a two-set lead.
After SPU controlled action throughout the third, the teams again settled into a tight affair in the fourth.
A kill by Borowikow gave UAA the lead for good at 19-18 and started a 3-0 run. Then, leading 22-21, Matthisen ripped a kill and teamed with Ashley Bates for a block on SPU's Jessica Bettencourt. One point later, Matthisen finished the match by converting on setter Calli Scott's 49th assist.
At Bellingham, Western Washington was led by Jepsen and Marlayna Geary who had 10 kills and 10 digs. It was the freshman's fourth straight double-double and 13th of the season. Setter Laurie Yearout had 39 assists and libero Allison Gotz had 17 digs.
Devon Crotteau paced the Yellowjackets with 16 kills and 23 digs. Jen Boe had 12 kills. Setter Hillary Morrison had 21 digs and Jody Lutz had five blocks to lead the MSUB defense.
WWU never trailed in the first set, and broke away from a 5-5 tie to lead the rest of the way in the second set.
In the third set, the Yellowjackets held a 20-19 lead, but then the Vikings scored the next five points, capping the run on a block by Bailey Jones. After a kill by Crotteau stopped the run, Jones closed out the match with a kill.
Crotteau finished her career with a GNAC-record 4.20 kills per set. Meanwhile, Central Washington's Erin Norris also set a GNAC record ending her career with a 0.57 aces per set average.
Both records were formerly held by Mandy Veley of Western Oregon, who averaged 4.09 kills and 0.55 aces during the 2004 and 2005 seasons.
Norris, who ended up with 198 career aces, had 12 kills, three aces and five blocks contributing 17 1/2 points and hitting for a .478 percentage (12-1-23) in CWU's victory.
Kady Try had nine kills and Bri Gregory had six blocks as the Wildcats (16-11, 8-8) outhit the Saints (3-23, 0-16) by a .272 to .092 margin. Kirstyn Druzianich had eight kills and Samantha Dominiak had seven for SMU.
Megan Thigpen had 20 kills, including two in the late stages of the match, to lead Alaska Fairbanks (12-15, 6-10) to its home victory over Northwest Nazarene (15-14, 8-8).
Thigpen broke an 11-11 tie in the fifth set with a kill. Then following a block by Heather Lyons and Marybeth Wikander, Thigpen had another kill before Jessica Hill ended the match with her 17th kill of the contest.
Hill hit for a team-best .375 percentage (17-5-32). The Nanooks also got 15 kills and 13 digs from Heather Lyons and 52 assists and 13 digs from Alexa Sherman in the victory.
Alaina Barber led Northwest Nazarene with 15 kills, while Carly Dranginis had 13 and Cammy Dranginis chipped in with 10. Kelly VanElderen and Becky Flores each had five blocks.
Cammy Dranginis had four blocks to finish her career with 367 blocks, 35 more than anyone else in GNAC history. She also finished fifth on the GNAC career point list with 1,589.
San Bernardino Wins CCAA Title, Qualifiers Announced Sunday
Cal State San Bernardino wrapped up the CCAA title and likely the host role for the NCAA Division II West Regionals with a 3-0 sweep of Cal State Monterey Bay Saturday night.
The Coyotes will be joined in the regionals by GNAC champion Alaska Anchorage, PacWest champ Hawaii Hilo and five at-large teams.
The NCAA selection committee will choose the five at-large teams on Sunday. The announcement of the qualifiers will be made sometime after 4 p.m. Pacific on the NCAA web site.
Two GNAC teams were in position to grab at-large berths when the weekend started.
Seattle Pacific, which lost at regionally fifth-ranked UAA Saturday night, was ranked seventh, while Western Washington, which was ranked eighth, won its only match of the week sweeping MSUB.
