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        SPU-San Bernardino box score, play-by-play
        SPU-UC San Diego box score, play-by-play

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – They've taken down some tough teams in 27 years on the volleyball court. But the Seattle Pacific Falcons had never taken down national power Cal State San Bernardino.
 
Until now.
 
Madi Cavell and Ellie Britt both had double-doubles, and the Falcons, after dropping the first two games of Saturday's match in the season-opening Coyote Classic, stormed back for a 3-2 victory against the No. 14-ranked team in NCAA Division II.
 
Scores on San Bernardino's home court in Coussoulis Arena were 9-25, 21-25, 25-17, 25-23, 15-11.
 
The Falcons (2-1) had lost all seven previous matches to the Coyotes (1-2), most recently in the 2010 West Regional final at San Bernardino. In those seven matches, SPU had won just one game, that coming in 2002.
 
"For our program, it's just huge," head coach Chris Johnson said. "They're ranked 14^th, but you feel they're better than that. To beat them on their court in five games and come back from two games down says a lot about our team. They knew they had to play together and play at that level, and they did it. We played great, disciplined, aggressive volleyball."
 
UC San Diego proved to be even tougher in the final match of the tournament, as the No. 23-ranked Tritons swept SPU, 25-11, 25-15, 25-21. The Falcons (2-2) thus split their four tournament matches, falling to Cal State Los Angeles, then beating Cal Poly Pomona on Friday.
 
Junior outside hitter Cavell (Keizer, Ore.) had a career-high 18 kills, along with 11 digs, for the fourth double-double of her career. She also had three blocks.
 
Sophomore outside hitter Britt (Orange, Calif.), coming off a career-high 18 kills in Friday's four-game victory against Cal Poly Pomona, slammed 16 on Saturday, and came up with 12 digs for her first collegiate double-double.
 
Senior middle blocker Nikki Lowell (Claremont, Calif.) put down a season-high 12 kills, came up with a career-high eight digs, and had eight blocks. Lowell was named to the All-Tournament team. Junior setter Sara Biondi (Sacramento, Calif.) had 24 assists, and junior Kendall Langdon (Irvine, Calif.) had 22.
 
Cal State San Bernardino, coming off a four-game loss to No. 24 Central Washington on Friday, ran off 11 straight points in Game 1 to expand a 6-4 lead to 17-4 and never looked back. SPU kept things much closer in Game 2, down just 22-21 before the Coyotes scored the last three points.
 
"After the first game, we just said, 'This isn't our energy, it isn't our discipline; this isn't the way we play volleyball,' " Johnson said. "We didn't change anything, but in Game 2, we looked totally different. We had really good shape, but we just didn't finish at the end. We felt that even though they won the last three points, momentum was shifting our way."
 
The Falcons controlled Game 3 most of the way, then scored the first three points of Game 4 and led it from start to finish.
 
In the decisive fifth game, San Bernardino had an 8-7 lead on the switchover. But SPU closed the match on an 8-3 run, getting the final point on a combined block effort by sophomoer Jackie Arnold (Anaheim, Calif.) and Biondi.
 
San Bernardino has played in 10 straight regional championship matches, winning six of those. The Coyotes also played in the NCAA D-2 final in 2008 and 2011, falling to Concordia-St. Paul both times.
 
"This is a perennial powerhouse in the region. They very rarely lose on their homecourt, and very rarely lose two in a row, so after they lost to Central on Friday, I was absolutely expecting them to be on fire today," Johnson said. "We just straight outplayed them. After the first two games, we got it together and took it to them."

UC San Diego 3, Seattle Pacific 0
Madi Cavell had 10 kills, putting her in double digits for all four matches of the tournament. But the Tritons (4-0) went up 6-0 in Game 1 and 10-4 in Game 2. The Falcons found some spark in the third game, taking a 20-18 lead before UC San Diego ran off six straight points.
                                                                                           
Nikki Lowell had four more block assists, giving her 26 total blocks in the tournament. Sara Biondi earned 13 assists to go along with the 24 she had earlier against San Bernardino.


NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
Coyote Classic
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Coussoulis Arena / San Bernardino, Calif.

Seattle Pacific 3, (No. 14) Cal State San Bernardino 2

Game scores – 9-25, 25-21, 25-17, 25-23, 15-11.
 
Service aces – SPU 5 (Breanne Wiekamp 2), CSSB 7 (3 players with 2).
Kills – SPU 56 (Madi Cavell 18, Ellie Britt 16, Nikki Lowell 12), CSSB 49 (Danielle Newcombe 12).
Assists – SPU 54 (Sara Biondi 24, Kendall Langdon 22), CSSB 44 (Hannah Liserra 28).
Digs – SPU 57 (Britt 12, Cavell 11, Wiekamp 11), CSSB 52 (Arielle McCullough 19).
Blocks / solo – SPU 22 / 1 (Lowell 7 / 0 solo), CSSB 16 / 2 (Brenna McIntosh 7 / 1 solo).
Hitting (kills-errors-attacks) – SPU 56-33-154—.149 (Arnold 5-0-8--.625, Lowell 12-4-27--.296), CSSB 49-26-140--.164 (May 8-4-17--.235).
Attendance – 275.


(No. 23) UC San Diego 3, Seattle Pacific 0
The Den / San Bernardino, Calif.
 
Game scores – 25-11, 25-15, 25-21.
 
Service aces – SPU 1 (Breanne Wiekamp), UCSD 5 (Amber Hawthorne 2).
Kills – SPU 25 (Cavell 10), UCSD 33 (Danielle Dahle 10).
Assists – SPU 23 (Sara Biondi 13), UCSD 32 (Heidi Sierks 19).
Digs – SPU 41 (Kendall Langdon 10), UCSD 48 (Dahle 13).
Blocks / solo – SPU 10 / 0 solo (Nikki Lowell 4 / 0), UCSD 10 / 2 solo (Dahle 1 / 1).
Hitting (kills-errors-attacks) – SPU 25-27-107—minus -.019 (Jackie Arnold 4-3-13—.077), UCSD 33-17-93—.172 (Kameron Cooper 6-0-9 –.667).
Attendance – 83.
 
Records – Seattle Pacific 2-2, UC San Diego 4-0.
 
Next match – Seattle Pacific vs. Holy Names at Route 92 Invitational (Belmont, Calif.), Friday, 9:00 a.m.