Hometown Favorites:

The two-time defending champions have nailed down a spot on the single-elimination bracket at the NAIA Volleyball National Championships. However, Coach Dennis Janzen’s Fresno Pacific Sundbirds can’t take anything for granted like they did a year ago, assured of the weekend’s overall No. 1 seed before a watered down lineup surrendered a Thursday loss to the hometown favorites from Morningside.

“We don’t have that luxury this year,’’ said Janzen after his team swept Golden State Athletic Conference rival Point Loma Nazarene 25-22, 25-12 and 25-21 in the tournament’s second of three days of pool play.
The Sunbirds, now 34-0, can’t retain the highly advantageous top seed unless they finish first in Pool A. And, there’s no guarantee they’ll do that unless they defeat 12th-ranked Olivet Nazarene (Ill.) at 3:15 p.m. today and finish the pool 3-0.

“We could still have a three-way tie at 2-1 in our pool, which would require a playoff,’’ said Janzen. “So, we need to win.’’
Martina Gregusova, the 6-1 sophomore transfer from Mississippi State by way of Nitra, Slovakia, delivered 13 kills to lead the winners Wednesday. Gregusova and 6-1 junior Michelle Johnson, a Sacramento City College transfer who added 11 kills, accounted for over half the team’s 47 in the match.

Backing up two wins during the 20-match GSAC campaign, Fresno Pacific scored the last nine points to turn the second set into a blowout and then used a 12-1 surge to take charge 15-5 in Game 3.
Point Loma, now 21-12, had forced a fourth game in one of its two previous meetings with Fresno, which has won an amazing 10 GSAC titles in a row, the last nine of them outright championships.

The Sunbirds, 190-7 in conference play over the last decade, had a 64-39 advantage in digs with 17 by Mariah Mandelbaum, 15 by Tiffany Marinos and 14 by Gregusova.
“Marinos and Mandelbaum were both outstanding today,’’ said Janzen, delighted with the defensive effort. “We played much better today (than in a 3-0 sweep of unranked St. Ambrose on Tuesday). In stretches, we played at an extremely high level.’’

Point Loma Nazarene, which won Tuesday’s only five-game match in a mild upset over No. 12 Olivet Nazarene (Ill.), got nearly half its offense from Tabitha Henken. The 6-2 sophomore added 13 kills to her tournament-high 34 in Tuesday’s marathon victory.

#2 CALIFORNIA BAPTIST 3, #16 TAYLOR 0
Perennial power California Baptist brought 16th-ranked Taylor back down to earth a day after the Upland, Ind., team, appearing in its first national tournament since 2001, swept three games with No. 11 Vanguard (Calif.).

The winners lost only one senior from a year ago, when they extended their impressive streak of semifinal appearances to five years in a row before falling to eventual champion Fresno Pacific. And, two outstanding freshmen who’ve joined that rich vein of veterans were once again conspicuous in a 25-19, 25-20, 25-22 win.

Coach Ryan McGuyre’s team, which never trailed in any of Wednesday’s three sets, has only two seniors this year, as well. One of them is Fei Shi, a 6-3 outside hitter from Nanjing, China, who is already a two-time first-team All-American, and the veteran star shared the honors in this one with 12 kills.

Also terminating 12 times in a nifty .435 hitting performance was Melinda Adelin, a 6-2 freshman from Mulhouse, France, while the Lancers’ other freshman star, 5-9 Ingrid Carmona, from the Dominican Republic, added nine kills.
Cal Baptist improved to 28-5 with its second win in as many Pool B starts. Four of the five losses came in five-game battles, including both regular season meetings with No. 1 Fresno Pacific.

Taylor, now 36-6, got 10 kills from 6-foot sophomore Kelsey Pritchard, who came into the tournament with a season total of 607, tops in the nation.

#4 CONCORDIA 3, #14 BELLEVUE 0
A four-game match Tuesday night with No. 24 Morningside was definitely a battle, but the Eagles of Concordia, last year’s runner-up, swept past Bellevue of Nebraska in 70 minutes Wednesday, 25-22, 25-19, 25-19.

For the second night in a row, Coach Kyle Kvasnicka got strong performances from his two opposites, 6-1 junior Amber Ridens and 5-11 freshman Brooke Marino.
Marino led the Pool D favorites with 18 kills and posted a solid .361 hitting percentage. However, Ridens added 17 kills in just 20 attempts with only one error, fashioning a gaudy .800 efficiency.

Concordia, 28-7, continued to serve aggressively, totaling 14 service errors to just two for Bellevue. Compensating for those gift points, the Irvine, Calif., team had a 51-26 advantage in kills.
Bellevue, losing for the second day in a row, fell to 27-8 without a double-digit attacker. Rachel Muller, a 5-9 senior, led the suburban Omaha school with eight kills.

#7 COLUMBIA 3, #20 LUBBOCK CHRISTIAN 1
Swept in three games Tuesday by 19th-ranked Lee (Tenn.), the tradition-rich Cougars of Columbia also dropped their first set Wednesday against No. 20 Lubbock Christian.
After that, however, Coach Melinda Wrye-Washington’s highly international squad took control and won 28-30, 25-23, 25-17, 25-22, improving to 38-3 on the season.

Columbia, which has won three championships and finished second three more times while playing in a record-tying 16 consecutive national tournaments, needs a win today over No. 6 Georgetown (Ky.) to advance out of Pool F.
One of three Brazilians in the lineup, 5-10 junior Monika Dos Santos, led Columbia with 18 kills. Freshman setter Paula Ferreira (55 assists) and junior libero Tally Mattos (29), also both from Brazil, had key contributions, as well.

Maria Omondi, a 6-foot senior from Nairobi, Kenya, added 15 kills for a team that also has one player each from Canada and Egypt.
Lubbock Chistian, swept Tuesday by Georgetown, got 12 kills from 6-1 freshman Bailey Jones and 11 from 5-7 senior Kelsey Odell. The Lady Chaparrals, who reached the quarterfinals as one of the tournament’s major surprises last year, fell to 27-7.

#8 COLLEGE OF IDAHO 3, #21 LEWIS-CLARK STATE 1
On the heels of a four-game Tuesday win over No. 18 Doane (Neb.), College of Idaho followed the same script Wednesday, spotting Lewis-Clark State the first game before claiming the all-Idaho battle in four sets, 21-25, 25-10, 25-18, 25-20.

Appearing in their fifth national tournament and their second in a row, the Coyotes are now 26-1 since a season-opening loss in a five-gamer with fourth-ranked Concordia (Calif.), last year’s national runner-up.
Coach Liz Mendiola’s team got its typical scoring balance with 12 kills by Ciciley Fox, 11 from Kathryn Ely, and seven or more from four additional players. Junior libero Whitney Owen came up with 41 digs in just the second match of the tournament to produce over 200 swings for either team.

Lewis-Clark State, which lost in four games Tuesday to fifth-ranked Azusa Pacific, the Pool E favorite, turned to its star, Anile Clemente, a 5-11 senior from Sorocaba, Brazil. Clemente, who was a second-team All-American last season, had a match-high 14 kills as her team fell to 24-9.

#10 BIOLA 3, SHAWNEE STATE 0
After dropping its Pool C opener on Tuesday to 17th-ranked Indiana Tech, Biola responded with a 25-17, 25-19, 25-18 sweep over unranked Shawnee State (Ohio).

A school whose named is an acronym for “Bible Institute of Los Angeles,’’ Biola enjoyed only a 38-36 advantage in kills. However, the Eagles, who’ve reached the semifinals the last two years, had only 11 hitting errors to Shawnee State’s 26 and misfired just twice on serves.

Kelsey Christoferson, a 6-1 senior who was the only all-Golden State Athletic Conference performer for Coach Aaron Seltzer’s team, led the victory with 10 kills while freshman setter Justine Schoneveld totaled 32 assists and senior libero Katie Stevens collected 18 of the team’s 48 digs.
Despite the win, Biola, 23-14, may need to knock off No. 3 Northwestern today in order to advance out of pool play.

Shawnee State, which had won 25 matches in a row before being swept Tuesday night by Northwestern, fell to 31-5 despite a match-high 13 kills by 5-11 junior Heather Koehler, 29 assists by classmate Haley Halcomb and 21 digs by Tiffany Dailey, yet another junior.

#12 OLIVET NAZARENE 3, ST. AMBROSE 1
Bouncing back from Tuesday’s loss to No. 15 Point Loma Nazarene, the Tigers won a pivotal third game before finishing off unranked St. Ambrose, 25-17, 14-25, 25-23, 25-16.
Making their fourth straight trip to the tournament and eighth overall, the team from Bourbonnais, Ill., probably won’t advance, however, unless they can knock off two-time defending national champion Fresno Pacific today.

Keeping Coach Brenda Williams’ Tigers alive, though, were Stephanie Smith and Sara Byrne with 13 and 12 kills, respectively. Senior setter Erin Sikora, the Chicagoland Collegiate Conference player of the year, dished out 41 assists in a match that left her team 36-9 on the season.
St. Ambrose, 35-9, got 10 kills from 5-10 junior Amy Royer while Kait Gallagher added nine. The Queen Bees got another eight each from Megan O’Shea and Tori Matzen.

MOBILE 3, #11 VANGUARD 1
Mobile’s first of three straight national tournaments came two years ago while Vanguard made its inaugural appearance just last year.
Nonetheless, this was probably a watershed win for Coach Jon Campbell’s Mobile program, even though the Lady Rams had won four of their 10 previous national tournament matches.

Whitney Knight delivered 14 kills and Paul Stilkey added 12 as the unranked Gulf Coast Athletic Conference champs spotted No. 11 Vanguard the first game before charging back to win in four games, 23-25, 26-24, 25-18, 25-19.

The loss meant Vanguard, one of the seven Golden State Athletic Conference teams to make it here, won’t advance after being seeded second in Pool B behind league rival California Baptist, the No. 2-ranked team. Mobile, 25-12 and seeded fourth (last) in the pool, will need a win today over No. 16 Taylor (Ind.) to advance into single-elimination play Friday.

Vanguard, 17-14, got a match-high 16 kills from Heather DeJongh and 13 from Kelsey Wirt, but the Lions, swept on Tuesday by Taylor, hit only .078 for the match.



credit:http://hot-news.spicybookmark.com