THE WEST REGIONAL SCHEDULE:
All matches at The Den (1,000), San Bernardino, Calif.
Thursday, Nov. 19 -- Quarterfinals
Match 1: (3) Sonoma State vs. (6) Cal State Los Angeles, noon
Match 2: (2) UC San Diego vs. (7) San Francisco State, 2:30 p.m.
Match 3: (4) Hawaii Hilo vs. (5) Alaska Anchorage, 5 p.m.
Match 4: (1) Cal State San Bernardino vs. (8) Seattle Pacific, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 20 -- Semifinals
Match 5: Winner 1 vs. Winner 2, 5 p.m.
Match 6: Winner 3 vs. Winner 4, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 21 -- Championship
Match 7: Winner 5 vs. Winner 6, 7 p.m.
Live stats of all matches at www.csusbathletics.com
Weekly release, with complete stats (PDF)
SEATTLE – Long before the season started, the Seattle Pacific Falcons felt they were an NCAA tournament-caliber volleyball team.
They were right.
For the first time since the 2006 season, the Falcons have claimed a spot in the West Regionals. Now, they’re on their way to California for the start of tournament play on Thursday night against top-seed and host team Cal State San Bernardino.
SPU, which comes in as the No. 8 seed, and the Coyotes will serve it up at 7:30 p.m. in the last of Thursday’s four quarterfinal matches.
The Falcons (17-11 overall) are one of two Great Northwest Athletic Conference teams in the eight-team regional. They’re in the same half of the bracket as GNAC champion Alaska Anchorage, which comes in as the No. 5 seed and faces No. 4 Hawaii Hilo in another Thursday quarterfinal. If the Seattle Pacific knocks off San Bernardino, it would meet the Hilo-Anchorage winner in a Friday evening semifinal.
The championship match is Saturday night at 7. The West champion will join the seven other regional winners in the Elite Eight on Dec. 3-5. That will be played at the yet-to-be-determined site of one of the regional champions.
TALK ABOUT A TURNAROUND
The Falcons are bound for the NCAAs just one year after compiling an 8-18 record. With all but two players back from that team, they came into the season confident that the experience gained in 2008 would yield rewards in 2009.
It did -- but only after a slow start. The Falcons got out of the blocks at 2-5, and had lost four in a row, including a pair of five-game heartbreakers. Then, SPU got into sync, winning eight of its next nine matches, including the first four in conference play. And that streak included a pair of five-game victories, one of those being a comeback from a 2-0 deficit to beat Western Oregon in the conference home opener on Sept. 24.
After that, the Falcons never fell below second place in the conference standings, and were among the West Region’s top eight teams in all three sets of rankings, including a high of No. 6.
BEEN THERE BEFORE
This is Seattle Pacific’s fifth trip to the NCAA tournament, and the Falcons are hoping this is the year they get into the win column. SPU was swept by Cal State San Bernardino in 2000, dropped four-gamers to Hawaii Pacific in 2001 and Cal State Los Angeles in 2005, then took Chico State to five games in 2006 before going down, 3-2.
Prior to joining NCAA Division II, Seattle Pacific played in the NAIA tournament in 1987, 1989 and 1990.
SPEAKING OF THE FALCONS
Chris Johnson didn’t need any kind of a coaching hunch to know that his team could make it back to the NCAAs.
From the time the last ball was hit in 2008, he just knew a tournament berth was within reach for 2009.
“That was certainly one of our team’s intentions, even last spring,” Johnson said. “We’re obviously very excited about it, It’s well deserved by this team. We’ve seen what we’re capable of, and I think we’ve learned a lot from our wins and from our losses.”
Now that the Falcons are there, Johnson knows they have a tough challenge in facing top-seeded Cal State San Bernardino on the Coyotes’ home court. But he’s eager to get the match going.
“They’re good, they’ve been good for a number of years, and they’re well coached,” Johnson said of the Coyotes. “But I think it’s going to be the kind of environment we’ve been thriving in this year -- big crowd, a lot of energy in the gym, and high stakes. We’ve seemed to play well in pressure matches all year.”
Added sophomore libero Anna Herold (Bothell, Wash./Shorecrest HS), who just last week broke her own single-season school record for digs, “San Bernardino is a good team. But all the teams in the region are going to be good. I don’t think we’re any more scared just because they’re No. 1. (And) we’re peaking at the right time going into postseason.”
SCOUTING THE REGIONAL QUARTERFINALS
Seattle Pacific (17-11, 11-5 GNAC) vs. Cal State San Bernardino (29-1, 21-1 CCAA)
Tournament seeds: Seattle Pacific No. 8, Cal State San Bernardino No. 1.
All-time series: San Bernardino leads, 5-0.
Current series streak: San Bernardino won 5.
Last time: San Bernardino 3, SPU 0 (25-12, 28-26, 25-14 on Sept. 5, 2008 at San Diego).
AVCA rankings (as of Nov. 9 final poll): SPU unranked San Bernardino No. 2.
Regional rankings (as of Nov. 12 final list): SPU No. 7, San Bernardino No. 1.
Cal State San Bernardino on the Web.
Coyotes in a nutshell: San Bernardino is the defending West Regional champion, was last year’s national runner-up -- and hasn’t slowed down a bit. They just won their fourth straight California Collegiate Athletic Association championship, setting team records for conference victories (21) and most regular-season victories (29). Their only loss was a four-gamer at UC San Diego on Oct. 17, and they’ve won 10 straight since then.
Wielding the biggest hammer for the Coyotes is Jane Chafeh, who has 459 kills (an average of 4.73 per game, which ranks No.2 in Division II) and hits at a .292 clip. The most accurate arm for San Bernardino? That belongs to Samantha Middleborn, who has 256 kills and is hitting .369. The Coyotes hit .294 as a team, ranking No. 4 in D-2. Middleborn also is a defensive presence at the net with a team-leading 104 blocks, including 17 solos. Chafeh also has 17 solo blocks and also helps keep the ball in play with 297 digs.
San Bernardino has 18 three-game sweeps among its 29 victories, and has been taken to five games just once.
HOW TO THEY COMPARE?
(GNAC or CCAA rank in parentheses)
Hitting percent SPU .212 (2)
CSUSB .294 (1)
Opponent hit percent SPU .156 (1)
CSUSB .135 (1)
Kills per game SPU 13.42 (1)
CSUSB 14.14 (1)
Assists per game SPU 12.60 (1)
CSUSB 13.18 (1)
Aces per game SPU 1.26 (8)
CSUSB 1.79 (4)
Digs per game SPU 16.73 (4)
CSUSB 14.88 (8)
Blocks per game SPU 1.92 (5)
CSUSB 2.11 (2)
Home record SPU 5-4
CSUSB 11-0
Away record SPU 8-3
CSUSB 11-1
Neutral record SPU 4-4
CSUSB 7-0
3-gamers SPU 7-3
CSUSB 18-0
4-gamers SPU 7-3
CSUSB 10-1
5-gamers SPU 3-5
CSUSB 1-0
MOST RECENT SPU STARTERS
Nov. 14 at Alaska Anchorage, L 1-3
Player Kills Pct. Asts. Aces Digs Blocks
Shelby Swanson 0 .000 23 0 10 0
Sarah Risser 13 .194 0 1 10 2
Robin De Jong 4 . 100 0 1 2 4
Amber Johnson 6 .250 0 0 0 5
Jessica Bettencourt 6 .167 0 0 1 2
Priscilla Collings 21 .271 0 0 19 1
Anna Herold (LIB) 0 .000 6 0 17 0
SEATTLE PACIFIC 58 .221 55 3 66 18
DOUBLE-DOUBLES AND OTHER DELIGHTFUL DIGITS
-- Junior outside hitter Sarah Risser (Santa Barbara, Calif.) had 13 kills and 10 digs in the regular-season finale at Alaska Anchorage last Saturday night for her 15th double-double of the year and the 18th of her career. Sophomore outside hitter
Priscilla Collings (Chula Vista, Calif.) had 21 kills and 19 digs -- both of which were just one shy of her career highs -- for her sixth double-double of the season (and career), and freshman setter
Shelby Swanson (Kennewick, Wash./Kamiakin HS) posted 23 assists and 10 digs, giving her three double-doubles. The Falcons have 37 double-double this fall, nearly twice the total of 20 they had last year. Senior setter
Cortney Weedman (Scottsdale, Ariz.) has five this year and seven for her career. Sophomore outside hitter
Lindsey Wodrich (Richland, Wash./Richland HS) had five (10 career), and junior setter
Joelle Perez (Vancouver, Wash./Heritage HS) has two (three career).
--
Seattle Pacific finished atop the GNAC in kills per game (13.42), assists per game (12.60) and lowest opponent’s hitting percentage (.156). The Falcons have hit .212 for the season, No. 2 in the GNAC and a 46-point jump from a year ago.
--
SPU kept its opponents below .200 hitting in 20 of its 28 matches this season, including a stretch of 12 in a row from Sept. 4-Oct. 10.
-- Risser is No. 37 in all of NCAA Division II for kills per game at 3.73. That put her fifth in the GNAC. Leading the way nationally is Tatiana Kuhn of Henderson State at 4.85
-- Sophomore libero
Anna Herold (Bothell, Wash./Shorecrest HS) is No. 15 nationally and No. 3 in the GNAC in digs per game this week at 5.48. The national leader is Lauren Flynn of Texas A&M-Commerce at 6.21.
-- As a team,
the Falcons rank No. 22 nationally in assists per game (12.60) and are No. 26 in kills per game (13.42). Concordia-St. Paul leads both at 14.58 assists and 15.42 kills.
Click on
this link for a complete look at GNAC statistics. Click on
this link for a look at SPU’s national rankings.
MILESTONES IN THE MAKING
-- Sophomore outside hitter
Paige Hoffman is within one game of playing her 200th as a Falcon.
-- Sophomore middle blocker
Amber Johnson (Mount Vernon, Wash./Mount Vernon HS) is six kills away from 200
.
-- Junior middle
blocker Kylie Johnson (Tucson, Ariz.) is seven blocks away from 100.
MILESTONES MADE
--
Anna Herold did it again. With 13 digs on Nov. 12 at Alaska Fairbanks, the Falcons libero broke the single-season school record for digs for the second straight year. Herold had 579 last year (the record prior to her arrival at SPU was 541 by Torii Mount in 2007), and her performance at Fairbanks put her at 586. She heads to San Bernardino with 603 digs this season and 1,182 for her career, putting her within 10 of joining the school’s all-time top 5 for career digs.
-- It took
Cortney Weedman not quite two full seasons to rack up 1,000 assists. Weedman hit the millennium mark last Thursday when she picked up 20 at Fairbanks, putting her at 1,007. She added 26 more at Anchorage on Saturday.
--
Amber Johnson hit the 100-game mark as a Falcon last Thursday at Fairbanks, and broke through the 100-block barrier on Saturday at Anchorage. In her first year at Seattle Pacific, she now has 104 games played and 102 blocks.
FALCON REPLAY
Last week in Alaska, Seattle Pacific divided its final two regular-season matches. On Thursday in Fairbanks, Sarah Risser had 13 kills as the
Falcons swept the Nanooks, 25-17, 25-15, 27-25. SPU led for all but a moment of Game 1, when Fairbanks edged in front at 6-5. The Falcons ran off the next four points and never trailed again. The second game was knotted at 8-8 when SPU went on a 7-0 surge. Then in the third game, the Falcons had a 16-10 lead, sparked in part by three straight
Lindsey Wodrich service aces. But the Nanooks got back into a 19-19 tie and kept it close the rest of the way, though they never did take the lead.
On Saturday at Alaska Anchorage,
Priscilla Collings,
Sarah Risser and
Shelby Swanson all had double-doubles, but
SPU fell short of the conference-champion Seawolves, 27-25, 28-26, 19-25, 25-22. Anchorage, which ended the regular-season on a 12-match winning streak, came from behind in Game 1 and fought off two game points in Game 2 to take a 2-0 lead into break. SPU took charge early in Game 3 and stayed in front the rest of the way in that one. The fourth game was tied at 18-18 when the Seawolves scored three straight points to go in front for good.
ON THE HONOR ROLL
-- Sophomore middle blocker
Amber Johnson was named the
GNAC Newcomer of the Year on Nov. 16. Johnson, who joined the Falcons this year after playing at Whatcom Community College in Bellingham last fall, is the team’s leading hitter at .347 and leading blocker with 102 (0.98 per game). She ranked No. 2 in the conference in hitting and No. 5 in per-game blocking. Johnson earned second-team All-GNAC status. That marked the third straight year a new Falcon earned a conference postseason award. Setter
Joelle Perez was the Freshman of the Year in 2007, and libero
Anna Herold was Freshman of the Year in 2008.
-- Junior outside hitter
Sarah Risser was a unanimous choice for the All-GNAC first team. It was her first all-conference honor. Joining Risser and Johnson were Herold on the second team and senior middle blocker Jessica Bettencourt on the honorable mention list.
-- Risser was named the GNAC Player of the Week for Oct. 5-10, the first Falcon to be honored by the conference this season. Risser had a career-high 22 kills, along with 14 digs in a four-game win at Central Washington on Oct. 8, then had another 22 kills and 27 digs as SPU beat Northwest Nazarene in five games two nights later.
-- Risser and
Amber Johnson were named to the all-tournament team at the Western Washington Invitational on Sept. 12. In the four tournament matches against Notre Dame de Namur, Grand Canyon, No. 7-ranked West Texas A&M and defending Canadian champion British Columbia, Risser led in kills per game (4.27), pounding 64 altogether. She double-doubled in kills and digs in the first three matches. Johnson set the pace in hitting percentage at .477, with 27 kills and just three errors on 51 attacks.
AROUND THE GNAC
Click on
this link for a look at results, schedules and notes from the GNAC.
FINAL GNAC STANDINGS
Conference Overall
Alaska Anchorage 14-2 22-7
Seattle Pacific 11-5 17-11
Western Washington 10-6 17-10
Montana State Billings 10-6 17-11
Central Washington 8-8 16-11
Northwest Nazarene 8-8 15-14
Alaska Fairbanks 6-10 12-15
Western Oregon 5-11 8-19
Saint Martin’s 0-16 3-23