Nov. 15, 2007

Box Score

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. - Outside hitter Jaime Anderson (Sr., SeaTac/Mount Rainier) had a match-high 14 kills and 18 digs as nationally ranked Western Washington University defeated Chico State University, 30-26, 30-19, 30-28, in first-round action Thursday at the NCAA Division II Volleyball Pacific Regional being held at Coussoulis Arena on the campus of host Cal State San Bernardino.

The Vikings, ranked No.24 in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association/NCAA Division II Top 25 and the No.2 seed, improved to 22-4 with their 17th straight victory. They have lost just four games during that streak.

Chico State, the No.7 seed, ended its season at 16-13, losing its last five matches.

"We had some tournament jitters, which I expected," said Western coach Diane Flick. "But we got one under our belt which is something we had a problem with in our last three trips to regionals."

"We did a good job in coming back from a 28-26 deficit in the third game, so that we didn't have to go to a fourth game ... There were some good things that we did, but we didn't control the ball on our side very well."

Western advances to Friday's semifinals where it will face No.3 seed and defending regional champion UC San Diego, which improved to 20-7 with a 30-23, 25-30, 30-25, 26-30, 15-13 victory over No.6 seed Northwest Nazarene.

UC San Diego, ranked No.21 nationally, defeated the Vikings in the opening-round at last year's regional.

"They have strong hitters and a disciplined game," Flick said. "They've been here often and are a composed team, so we're going to have to match that."

Against Chico State, Western had a 13-2 advantage in blocks and a .261 to .141 edge in attack percentage.

Middle blockers Tiana Roma (Jr., Edmonds/Edmonds-Woodway) and Angie Alvord (Jr., Laurel/Meridian) had seven and six blocks, respectively, for the Vikings.

Western's Emily Castro (Sr., Bellingham/Meridian) added 11 kills and 11 digs, Marissa Hill (Jr., North Bend/Mount Si) had seven kills and no errors, and libero Courtney Schneider (Sr., Snohomish) had a match-high 24 digs, moving into fifth-place among NCAA II career leaders with 2,546.

Schneider became the first player in school and Great Northwest Athletic Conference history to reach the 700-plateau (702) in digs and her 7.71 per game average is national-record pace as is her career average of 6.96.

Trailing 20-19 in game one, Western scored five straight points with Roma and Anderson having one kill and one block each. The Wildcats never got closer than three after that.

The Vikings got out to a 17-9 lead in game two and Chico State was never within seven from there on. Western scored the last four points, three on kills by setter Katie Robinson (Sr., Everson/Nooksack Valley), Castro and Roma.

Neither team led by more than three points in game three and the Vikings trailed 28-26 before scoring four straight to end the match. Anderson had two blocks and a kill during that closing stretch.