SAN ANTONIO, Tex. - Although No. 3 Cal Lutheran was forced to compete on the road in the opening rounds of the 2013 NCAA Division III Volleyball Tournament, it was much like a home-court feeling late in a match that CLU initially trailed. When the Regals came out fired up in the third set, so did the Kingsmen soccer team that packed the bleachers with energy and enthusiasm, helping the Regals erase an early 2-0 deficit and come back to win 3-2 (22-25, 19-25, 25-18,25-15, 15-13).
It all came down to the fifth and final set tonight at Sams Gymnasium on the campus of Trinity University where the Regals pulled off a come-from-behind thriller by the lowest margin possible. The squads battled to the bitter end when senior Kylie McLogan, who recorded the first kill of the night, notched three consecutive kills to close out the fifth set on assists from Jackie Russell, and clinch the match for CLU. Both teams held leads during the final game, but down by a pair, Lauren Rohach got a kill and a HSU error evened the score, setting up the dramatic finish on a pair of serves from Allie Eason.
The Regals fed off the liveliness and involvement of classmates on the Kingsmen soccer team who are also in Texas to play Trinity in the First Round of the NCAA Division III Men's Soccer Tournament tomorrow and 3:00 p.m. (PST).
With their backs against the wall, trailing two games to none, and after a 10-minute intermission the resilient Cal Lutheran team came back out onto the court as the team we all know, grinding their way to another team victory that was made possible by the effort of all 17 players and the entire coaching staff.
Starting off the third set with an 8-2 advantage, helped the Regals push that gap to 16-9 before they went on to win 25-18 when Caitlin Fransen tallied the final kill of the game to cut the set deficit in half. As a unit CLU hit at a .424 clip, after struggling offensively in the first two games.
In the fourth, the Regals again got out to a quick lead and went up by seven points at 10-3 and as many as nine at 14-8. They held the Cowgirls to a negative hitting percentage at -.045 as they cruised to the 25-15 win that included kills from Pua Mo'okini-Oliveira and Eason before Mo'okini-Oliveira placed a service ace to end the set.
The decisive match saw CLU hit .259 as a team with 10 kills and just three errors. Hardin-Simmons used nine kills to stay in the game and hit .167, but the will was on the side of the Regals tonight.
Cal Lutheran jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first game with McLogan recording the first kill of the match and Hayley Tamagni served for the next three points, but the Cowgirls pulled themselves back into it and broke a 15-15 tie for their first lead of the day. The teams would never be separated by more than a pair for the remainder of the set, but it was Lauren Pirky and Hannah Hornsby who notch back-to-back kills for HSU to close out and steal the first game.
The second set started on the same path. Hardin-Simmons won a long rally for the eighth point, doubling up CLU, 8-4, at that point before the Regals buckled down. McLogan who had some trouble finding a groove in the first set, put down a big kill to pull the Violet and Gold to 9-6 and spark a 4-0 run that knotted the teams and forced a Hardin-Simmons timeout. During that stretch Tamagni and Russell joined forces for a block and Kennedy Peters produced an ace. Unfortunately for CLU the Cowgirls found a rhythm and trailing 21-18 Cal Lutheran used a timeout. HSU came out of the huddle to earn the next three consecutive points, opening the gap to 24-18 at game-point. Eason got a kill to keep CLU in it, but Tori Martinez ended the set at 25-19 in favor of Hardin-Simmons, putting Cal Lutheran at a 2-0 deficit.
Overall, McLogan led all players with 18 kills, notching a double-double with 17 digs, adding a service ace and a block assist. Eason was next in line with 14 kills and Mo'okini-Oliveira also hit double figures with 10. Russell handed out 39 assists and Jena Chavez contributed 11. Mo'okini-Oliveira, Tamagni and Peters had a pair of aces apiece. Joining McLogan with a team-leading 17 digs was libero Nicki Tetherow. At the net CLU combined for seven total blocks, paced by Rohach with five block assists.
Hardin-Simmons (23-16) had three players in double figures for kills tonight as Christine Sas led the way with 14 and Hornsby and Martinez notched a dozen apiece. Molli Owen and Tucker Smith had 24 and 23 assists, respectively. Defensively, Ashley Babineaux recorded a match-high 23 digs and Martinez had the only solo stop of the day.
In the first Quarterfinal match of the weekend UT-Dallas defeated Pomona-Pitzer 3-1 (25-18, 25-27, 25-17, 25-21) ending the Sagehens' season at 20-9. The second Quarterfinal saw Southwestern and Mary-Hardin Baylor (26-11) battling it out to five sets with the Pirates walking away victorious, winning 3-2 (26-24, 21-25, 21-25, 25-23, 15-13) as the MHB Crusaders' first NCAA Tournament appearance was short lived. The final match of the day went to host Trinity over UC Santa Cruz (20-7) by a 3-1 (25-12, 20-25, 25-21, 25-16) margin.
On Saturday in the Semifinals Cal Lutheran (31-1) will face UT-Dallas (31-8) at 1:30 p.m. (PST) before Southwestern (27-11) and host Trinity (35-6) meet at 4:00 p.m. (PST) with the two remaining teams advancing to Sunday's final.
Box Score: CLU 3, HSU 2
Tournament Central: 2013 NCAA Division III Volleyball Tournament
Bracket: 2013 NCAA Division III Volleyball Tournament Bracket
Live Stats: 2013 NCAA Division III Volleyball Live Stats
Live Video: 2013 NCAA Division III Volleyball Video
CLU Twitter: https://twitter.com/clusports
Follow Kylie: @k_mclogan and Pua: @puamookini
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