California Baptist University
Northwestern College (Iowa)
ALL GSAC SEMIFINAL
11/30/2007 8:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
COLUMBIA, Mo. ? It will be an all Golden State Athletic Conference semifinal as all the top seeds advanced to the final four of the NAIA Volleyball National Championship. California Baptist is one of those teams that advanced with a 3-0 (30-24, 30-14, 30-19) win over Northwestern. This will be the first time in the 28-year history of the event that all four teams are GSAC members.
The Lancers (31-4) move on to the semifinals for the fourth straight year and their fifth time overall. It was the Redraiders (30-11) second appearance in the quarterfinals. With all four teams being from the GSAC, it will guarantee the eighth time in the last 12 years that a member from that conference will be in the championship game.
“I think it's evident that the conference is that strong,” said CBU head coach Ryan McGuyre. “Other than Biola who is the only team to beat Fresno, all the higher seeded teams swept the lower seeded teams (in the GSAC) during the season. Playing in this conference makes us that much better at nationals because you always get better when you play good teams.”
Shi Fei led the way for CBU with 19 kills while hitting over .400 for the third straight night (.412, 19-5-34). Yudelka Bonilla and Verania Willis were also in double figures with Bonilla ripping 17 kills while Willis had 15. For the third consecutive match, Kayla Van Duyn had at least 50 assists dishing out exactly that for the night. Katrina Clark also had 17 digs while Rachel Gowen had four blocks to anchor the defense.
“Our depth helped us for sure tonight,” said McGuyre. “For Fei to lead us in kills and Yudelka be number two and Vera three shows our versatility. Vera actually struggled tonight. The girls did a good job of weathering the storm. There was no panic and we did a good job finishing up the match.”
Northwestern, who was coming off a thrilling five-game match upset, over seventh-seeded and host Columbia, rode the high from the earlier morning match into the opening game against CBU. The Redraiders jumped out to a 10-6 lead. CBU got within one, at 10-9, on kills by Willis, Bonilla and Colleen Sweeney. Northwestern answered to take a 14-11 lead, but that's when the Lancers took over behind the service Mical Bell who was in control of a 7-0 run as CBU took an 18-14 lead. In that span, Fei recorded three kills on the way to take the opening game.
It was all business the rest of the way as the Lancers took complete control in the second and third games. CBU lead 15-10 in game two before it closed out the match with a 15-4 run which included five consecutive points to close out the game. Bell served out the game and ripped an ace in the run which launched her into the top 10 for aces in a single season with 55.
In the final game, CBU jumped out to a 13-5 lead and ran away from there with Bonilla leading the way with five kills in that game.
The Lancers will play tomorrow inside the Southwell Complex at noon against No. 3 Concordia. CBU has won nine of the 10 games played this year with the Eagles with the Lancers winning 3-1, 3-0 and 3-0 including the semifinals of the NAIA Region II Tournament. If CBU wins it will play the winner of No. 1 Fresno Pacific and No. 4 Biola at 7:30 p.m.
