I was worried that the SMC/SDSU match going so long would mean I was bound to miss some of the most important match for me on the night — that being my Western Washington Vikings over in Hawaii against Sonoma State. Yes, it’s day one of the D-II tournament as well.
If the D-I tournament weren’t going on at the same time, I would have paid more attention to some D-II matches. As it is, only the match involving my local Vikings is going to get my full attention. And as I noted in the D-I post, I wasn’t too interested in today’s matches involving seeded teams. The only match remaining on the D-I side when my Vikings started their match was USC/Fairfield, and I could be pretty sure who was going to win that. Better to watch a more competitive match, and a match with personal stakes for me.
I don’t know about you, but I always have a better experience watching something when I really care about the outcome. Don’t misunderstand — ‘better experience’ doesn’t always mean ‘more enjoyable experience,’ for obvious reasons, but I’d rather take that risk than not. The joy of watching a team I really do care about win is like nothing in the world. All of us sports fans know that feeling, regardless of what sport it is we champion. It’s fun to watch Iowa State play Kentucky, but what gets my blood pumpin’ is Western versus Central (who lost today…stupid Central). Western versus Cal State-SB. I do have a couple of minor rooting preferences in D-I, but they’re both terrible at volleyball, so the Viks are gonna be my only fix in the sport I love most dearly.
I joined the SSU/WWU livestream relieved that it was still about 10 minutes until first serve. The BYU-Hawaii people (host institution) decided to play some obnoxious steel-guitar ‘islandy’ music (you’d know it if you heard it) in the interim. I hope for the sake of the people in the gym it was just on the webcast and not on the speakers in there. Seemed like it wasn’t live sound, but you never really know.
You should know about my Vikings if you’ve been reading my blog with much regularity, so I’ll give a quick rundown of Sonoma State. Their top scorer is Ally Sather, who averages 3.2 kills per set. She’s a six-rotation player, racking up numbers in digs, blocks, and even a few in serve receive. The team captain is Kelsey Hull, another big scorer. The Seawolves run a two-setter offense, relatively uncommon in D-II actually, with Hayley Ross and Devin Shaver. A player named Kelly Shaver is also on the Seawolves roster, and they’re from the same hometown. I guess they’re sisters, but they’re a year apart in age. I’d figure sister teammates would either be twins or would be 2 or 3 years apart in age. One year is…eh….cuttin’ it a little close.
Of the two setters, Ross sees a bit more playing time. The Seawolves aren’t a big blocking team — they are actually out-blocked on the season by their opponents. They also don’t really have a standout defender, with six different players in triple-digits in digs for the year. The leader, naturally, is libero Nicole Gragnola, but not by as big a margin as one would expect.
The players were given leis during player introductions. How festive. The commentator (yay, this stream has a commentator) mentions that the first two matches of the day both went 5 sets, which is why this one is nearly an hour late starting.
This match also looked to be sparsely-attended, but this time I can forgive them. There’s got to be better things to do in gorgeous Hawaii than go to a volleyball match between two teams you might not really care about.
The Seawolves went up 3-1 early, but the Vikings responded with some big hits and blocks from our top star Marlayna Geary to go up 6-4. A net serve ended the run. As I expected, our block was much superior to Sonoma’s, and they were surely happy when Geary had to go to a back-row rotation.
The set drew even at 8, and Western went up 9-8 to send Geary to the service line. The next point was a little contentious, as it appeared that one of our hitters sent the ball long, but it was called touched. The Seawolves players looked upset, but their coach actually got up to tell them to cool it. Don’t see that too often. The set was tied again at 10, 11, and 12. From 12-12, our girls rattled off three in a row, with setter Laurie Yearout scoring on a dink and then a great set to Kayla Erickson.
The Seawolves sided out with Brooke Moore the rally after, but our front-line kept up the pressure, extending the lead to 4 at 17-13. From 18-15, the teams traded sideouts. It seemed like our girls had a better sideout percentage than Sonoma State did. The first timeout of the set came with our team up 20-17.
Geary really kept up the pressure out of the timeout with a fine back-row kill. The Seawolves scored with Regan Richert a smart sideout on 21-17 with a soft shot to an unguarded back corner. Kelsey Moore gave the Vikings set point at 24-20. The Seawolves weren’t able to return Jennica McPherson‘s serve, giving us set one 25-20. Despite an advantage in kills 15-12, the Seawolves’ nine hitting errors really sealed their fate.
The play-by-play announcer, who sounded like a ‘there for his voice’ sort of guy, was joined on commentary by the BYU-Hawaii athletic director, and him I was impressed with. He really knew his volleyball, providing some insightful and smart commentary. I wonder if he’s played the game competitively.
Our girls rattled off five straight to begin set number two and prompt the Seawolves’ timeout. After a sideout, McPherson rattled off several on serve, including a kill of her own. She’s a great hitter and I am so looking forward to seeing her for the next three years. The run continued out of the timeout, until the Seawolves finally sided out with Brooke Moore. The commentators mentioned that their position was behind the up referee, which made it a little hard to see who was actually doing the scoring. I sympathize — at Carver Gym, the announce position is behind the down referee.
The Seawolves were able to score three in a row to get to 6-3, but they had trouble getting any closer. The Vikings got another block at 8-4 at the end of a really long rally, which had to be demoralizing for the Sonoma State side. With a wide hitting error by Caylie Seitz, the Vikings took their largest lead of the set at 11-4, and another hitting error, by Kelsey Hull, went about 20 feet long. Down 12-4, the Seawolves took their last timeout of the set. and it was really starting to look like there was simply a gulf in talent between the two sides. That’s probably not the case, considering that Sonoma State are a quality team who made the NCAA tournament, but it’s what the match looked like.
Sonoma State had a really poor service reception coming out of the timeout to give Carmen Vasilatos a service ace. Sonoma State finally sided out at 13-5 with Hull, but this was short-lived, too, as our girls ran it to 15-5. The play-by-play guy admitted in passing that he really does not have a background in volleyball, but rather in basketball (point forward…he’s this guy). Considering, he did okay.
The set started to close a little bit from 15-5, as the Seawolves ran it to 16-10, but when a 5-1 run can only get you to within 6 you’re in trouble. The elastic snapped pretty quickly, as our front line hitters and blockers ran it back out to 9 at 19-10. But from there, Sonoma State made it dangerously close, closing to 4 at 20-16 on the backs of repeated hitting errors from our side. I’m sure Coach Flick had some words with the girls at intermission. But the lead was simply too big to lose. The second set final was 25-18.
I sure as hell wasn’t counting chickens before they hatched, after seeing two D-I matches earlier in the day go a full five after one side went up 2-0. Sonoma State had 11 hitting errors and just 8 kills in set two. Our girls weren’t a whole lot better, with 7 errors and 9 kills. The Sonoma State defense, such as it was, had effectively removed Geary since very early in the first set, as she had just two kills through two sets. As this was a tournament setting, or perhaps just because the first two matches went long (though that would require the consent of both coaches), ‘halftime’ was just 3 minutes long rather than 10 as it would be in the regular season.
1-0 in set three was probably the point of the match, going back and forth for well over a minute, ending with a kill for the Seawolves. They followed with an ace on a serve reception error by our libero Samantha Hutchinson to go up 3-0. A very close line/out call went Western’s way to bring it to 4-3, and the set was tied the point after. The Seawolves attained a two-point lead at 7-5, but Emily Boerger‘s big presence at the net drew it even at 8. Geary served up what would have been a service error if not for Hull getting in the way and making it an ace. Heyyyy, I’ll take it.
From that 9-8 advantage, the set remained quite even for a time. Sonoma State took the next 2-point lead at 14-12, which was maintained for a time as well. The set was knotted up at 17 on Geary’s serve when Moore hit home a two-hand tip to the back-right corner of the court. Coach Flick called time for the Vikings at 20-18 after a long rally went Sonoma’s way. Whatever she told ’em at the timeout worked, as the set drew even at 20. Sonoma State’s hitting error from the left side, of which they’d had relatively few in the third set, prompted their timeout down 21-20.
The color commentator used a term I hadn’t heard before — “true point.” He used it to describe taking a point on serve. And the Seawolves did it after their timeout to draw even at 22. On that rally, our right-back showed why wiping the floor happens so much — she fell flat on her butt. Erickson and Yearout brought it to match point at 24-22 with a big double-block, and Sonoma State took their last timeout. To their credit, the Seawolves staved off both match points to make it 24-24. Our girls got another with a right-side kill. After a long rally, Geary put it away from the left side to finish the sweep.
#4 Western Washington d. #5 Sonoma State (25-20, 25-18, 26-24)
Wasn’t really that good of a match, but hell, I’ll take it. Hopefully Coach Flick can prepare well for the top seeds tomorrow. And doubly hopefully I get to see the match. The commentators on this webcast talked about the regional semifinals tomorrow being telecast only, on something called BYU TV. I do not want to have to miss this match.
Full Day One NCAA Division II tournament results
Southeast regional
#1 Armstrong Atlantic d. #8 Belmont Abbey 3-2
#4 Tusculum d. #5 Lincoln Memorial 3-2
#6 Newberry d. #3 Flagler 3-1
#2 Wingate d. #7 Lenoir-Rhyne 3-0
Central regional
#1 Concordia-St. Paul d. #8 Wayne State 3-0. So it was written, so it will be.
#5 Minnesota-Duluth d. #4 Central Missouri 3-2
#3 Nebraska-Kearney d. #6 Washburn 3-0
#2 Southwest Minnesota State d. #7 Truman 3-0
West regional
#1 BYU-Hawaii d. #8 UC San Diego 3-1
#4 Western Washington d. #5 Sonoma State 3-0
#3 Cal State-San Bernardino d. #6 Central Washington 3-2
#2 Grand Canyon d. #7 San Francisco State 3-2
South Central regional
#1 Regis (CO) d. #8 Metro State 3-2
#4 Angelo State d. #5 Adams State 3-0
#3 Colorado-Mines d. #6 Colorado Christian 3-1
#2 West Texas A&M d. #7 Arkansas-Fort Smith 3-0
Midwest regional
#1 Indianapolis d. #8 Rockhurst 3-0
#5 Ferris State d. #4 Lewis 3-1
#6 Hillsdale d. #3 Grand Valley State 3-1
#7 Ashland d. #2 Northwood 3-2
East regional
#1 New Haven d. #8 Dominican (NY) 3-0
#4 NYIT d. #5 Franklin Pierce 3-1
#3 Adelphi d. #6 LIU-Post 3-0
#2 Bridgeport d. #7 Dowling 3-0
Atlantic regional
#1 Wheeling Jesuit d. #8 Fayetteville State 3-0
#4 Clarion d. #5 Lock Haven 3-0
#3 California (PA) d. #6 Shippensburg 3-1
#2 Gannon d. #7 Mercyhurst 3-1
South regional
#1 Tampa d. #8 Clark Atlanta 3-0
#5 Florida Southern d. #4 Eckerd 3-2
#3 Palm Beach Atlantic d. #6 Rollins 3-1
#7 Christian Brothers d. #2 West Florida 3-1
So mostly chalk, but a few upsets. Here’s to seed-related upsets continuing in round 2!
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