Thursday, November 20, 2014

NAMPA, Idaho - Alaska Anchorage was one point away from winning the first set, but Sonoma State rallied for a 26-24 victory and went on to secure a 3-1 win in the second match of the NCAA Division II Volleyball West Regional at the Johnson Sports Center Thursday.

That sets up an all California College Athletic Association semifinal in Friday's first contest between seventh-seed SSU and sixth-seed Cal State San Bernardino.  The Coyotes earlier eliminated Western Washington by the same 3-1 score.

Sonoma won its match by scores of 26-24, 25-18, 14-25, 25-11 to improve to 21-6 on the season. UAA closes out its season with the same record.

Caylie Seitz paced the Californians with 17 kills and Madelyn Densberger had 15 kills on .469 hitting.  Setter Calan Seitz had 26 assists, nine digs and a team-high four blocks.

Brooke Pottle led UAA with 11 kills and Kayla McGlathery had 10.  McGlathery also had a match and career-high 10 blocks.

UAA outblocked the CCAA champions 15-8, but were outhit in the contest .189 to .123 including .344 to minus .125 in the decisive fourth set.

The match was the first meeting ever between the only two NCAA Division II teams to use Seawolves as their nickname.

The northern Seawolves faced a big hole in the first set, trailing 19-13 before using a timeout to rally. UAA won seven of eight points to tie it 20-20 and had a chance at set point when Erin Braun’s kill made it 24-23.

Densberger answered for the Californians, however, followed by a kill from Seitz and an ace by Kaitlyn Connolly to take the early advantage.

After Sonoma State closed out the second with a late run, UAA rallied to dominate the third frame, hitting .289 and using several impressive plays from McGlathery – an All-GNAC middle blocker and league Newcomer of the Year – to stay alive.

The rally was short-lived, though. Sonoma State built a 14-10 lead midway through the fourth set and won 11 of the last 12 points to close the match.

“I think we played OK, especially in games one, two and three, then we kind of got rolled over in game four,” said UAA head coach Chris Green, who is now 132-66 in seven seasons. “(If) game one goes the other way we’re probably still out there playing in game five.

“I’m proud of our girls. They came out pretty strong in game one, had to fight from a 6-point deficit in the game and had a lot of momentum. We just couldn’t keep the momentum in game two.”

UAA was led along the back row by 13 digs from senior libero Quinn Barker, who finished with double-digit digs in every match this year. Junior outside hitter Katelynn Zanders had eight kills and 11 digs, while junior right side hitter Julia Mackey tallied seven kills and tied her career-high with seven total blocks.