California Baptist University
College of Saint Mary (Neb.)
FLAME ON!
12/1/2006 8:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
COLUMBIA, Mo. --- The Little Engine That Could knocked off all 3 of its previous opponents--including a pair of seeded teams--to advance to the quarterfinals, but the NAIA's 2-time defending champion California Baptist derailed St. Mary, 30-9, 30-27, 30-23, to move on to tomorrow's semifinal round.
While the Columbia area received a reported 16 inches of snow overnight, the Lancers started out the first set on fire, jumping out to a 13-2 lead and hitting .452 (16-2-31). California Baptist (32-7), which posted 4 blocks in game one, held the Flames to just 2 kills and a -.130 (2-5-23) hitting clip in the opener.
"It was an awesome start to this match," said California Baptist head coach Ryan McGuyre. "We had fun playing in the snow, trying to dig out our vans before the match, and I think that got us warmed up and ready for this one. The girls stuck to the game plan all afternoon and the way we played defense to start things out was very important."
As a continuation of her dominating performance at the tournament so far, Verania Willis rocketed 5 of her match-high 14 kills and posted one of her 3 blocks in the opener, as Lindsey Siefken (9 kills, 5 blocks) ended the first set with a kill that capped off a 7-0 rally to make the final score 30-9.
St. Mary put together 6 consecutive kills of its own, including 2 by Leslie Reeh (who finished with 9 altogether), to tie up the game-2 score at 19-19, and an attack error from CBU gave the Flames a lead at 26-25. Angela Willis (11 kills, 1 block) ripped a kill to tie up the game at 26 apiece, and a block by Verania Willis and Siefken untied the score for good on the following point.
Siefken's second kill of game 2 marked the second time in a row that she closed out a set with a kill.
The Lancers clung to a 22-20 lead in the closing set, but were aided by a pair of unforced errors from the Flames that eventually set up a 3-score rally for California Baptist that made the score 27-21. Natasha Evylnn had one of her 2 aces off the bench during the rally as Siefken and Verania Willis each registered a kill in the run.
"In game 2, our offense struggled a little bit (.226, 20-8-53), but our defense came up clutch," said McGuyre. "The last game was just the opposite of that. Our offense carried us, but we struggled defensively. We've got to out and put it all together tomorrow."
The Lancers posted 12 team aces for the second time in the past 2 days, as Angela Willis led the way with 4 and Yudelka Bonilla--who also had 9 kills on the afternoon--notched a trio of aces. Yesterday, Willis had 6 aces and the team tallied 12 against Cedarville.
Caitlin Parker ended the match with 40 assists and 3 kills.
Tomorrow's semifinal match starts at 9:30 a.m. against National American--the tournament's No. 1 seed with an overall record of 40-0. The final round of the tournament will be played at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow night (both listed as Central time).
"We're excited to be playing on Saturday," said McGuyre. "We're excited about the challenge of playing National American. They're undefeated and the road to a championship runs through them at some point. It'll definately be our biggest challenge of the tournament. I expect tomorrow to be an all-out, full-day battle."
To view the matches live through the NAIA's video feed, click here, or to visit the official tournament website, click here.
