CAL STATE LOS ANGELES INVITATIONAL SCHEDULE
Thursday, Sept. 1                                Seattle Pacific vs. Cal State San Bernardino, 7:30 p.m.
                                                    University Gym / Los Angeles, Calif.
                                                    Live Webcast        Live stats
 
Friday, Sept. 2                                      Seattle Pacific vs. Biola, Noon
                                                              Seattle Pacific at Cal State Los Angeles, 7:30 p.m.
                                                    University Gym / Los Angeles, Calif.
                                                    Live Webcast        Live stats
 
Thursday, Sept. 3                                Seattle Pacific vs. Chaminade, Noon
                                                    University Gym / Los Angeles, Calif.
                                                    Live Webcast        Live stats
 
 
SEATTLE – Like talented volleyball teams everywhere, the Seattle Pacific Falcons want nothing more than to play in the NCAA Tournament.
 
Through the first two weeks of the season, it seems as if they're doing exactly that.
 
After facing three top-25 teams in Minnesota at last weekend' Concordia St. Paul-St. Cloud State Invitational, SPU will take on another nationally ranked squad this week at the Cal State Los Angeles Invitational.
 
On Thursday, the Falcons square off against No. 7-ranked Cal State San Bernardino at 7:30 p.m. inside University Gym on the CSULA campus in the first of their four tournament matches.
 
Then come three contests against teams that aren't currently in the top 25, but are receiving votes in the national poll. On Friday, it's a twin bill, with Biola at noon and host Cal State L.A. at 7:30 p.m. The tourney concludes on Saturday at noon against Chaminade..
 
The Falcons got off to a strong start last week, sweeping then-No. 15 (and currently No. 25) Winona State in the opener before coming up short against Concordia St. Paul (No. 6 preseason / No. 6 now), St. Cloud State (No. 9 / No. 8), and Minnesota Duluth (receiving votes / No. 21).
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
All four matches will have live Webcasts and live stats. The Webcasts are available only on a subscription basis through the CCAA Network, which handles all sports Webcasts for the California Collegiate Athletic Association. The best option for Falcons fans who want to watch is a one-month subscription for $9.95. Otherwise, fans can follow along on the free live stats. The appropriate links can be found at the top of this story.
 
HOW'S THAT FOR OPENERS?
SPU began its season and the Jason Rhine coaching era in impressive fashion last Friday in St. Paul by defeating No. 15 Winona State, 25-23, 25-14, 25-21.
 
That marked the third time in a year that the Falcons defeated a top-25 opponent.
 
The first one was last Sept. 11 in Seattle against then-No. 13 St. Cloud State in a three-set sweep. Then on Oct. 21, GNAC rival Alaska Anchorage came to town ranked No. 24, but left town with a three-set loss to SPU.
 




SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- All four of this week's matches are against teams from the CCAA (two) and Pacific West Conference (two), so will count for West Region ranking purposes.
-- At the end of the season, those rankings will determine which eight schools from the West make it to the NCAA Tournament. The GNAC, CCAA, and Pac West champions receive automatic bids; the next five are at-large invitationals.
-- Last year, SPU played 20 matches against West Region schools, posting a 13-7 record and staying in the NCAA conversation up through the final weekend of the season.
-- The Falcons will start and end this week's tournament against defending conference champions: Cal State San Bernardino of the CCAA and Chaminade of the Pac West.
-- Seattle Pacific is 75-65 all-time against CCAA schools and 42-41 against the Pacific West.
-- SPU had its best hitting match of the season with a .266 performance (54 kills-17 errors-139 attacks) against Minnesota Duluth last Saturday. That included .267 in the first set, 250 in the second, .311 in the third, and .219 in the fourth.
-- The Falcons are still looking for their first double-double of the year.
-- After a relatively quiet first three matches of the weekend, junior middle blocker Hannah Hair found her spark in the finale against Minnesota Duluth. She had 13 kills and just two errors on 20 attacks for a .550 hitting percentage. That was more kills than she had in the first three matches combined (12).
-- Of the 16 players on the roster, 15 saw action in at least one of the 13 sets last week in Minnesota. Of those, eight got onto the court in all 13 sets.
-- The Falcons head into the second week of the season with three of their players hitting at .200 or better. Leading the way is Hannah Hair at .373 (25 kills-6 errors-51 attacks), Ashley Antoniak at .250 (25-7-72), and Allison Wilks at .212 (11-4-33).
 
SCOUTING THE CAL STATE SAN BERNARDINO COYOTES: 4-0, 0-0 CCAA
All-time series: CSSB leads, 8-1. Current series streak: CSSB won 1. Last time: CSSB 3, SPU 0 (25-17, 25-17, 25-18; Aug. 24, 2018 at Seattle).. Last SPU series win: SPU 3, CSSB 2 (9-25, 21-25, 25-17, 25-23, 15-11; Sept. 7, 2013 at San Bernardino). Coyotes on the Web.
Coyotes in a nutshell: In a typical year, San Bernardino either wins the NCAA West Regional tournament or at least gets into the title match. Last year was different, as the Coyotes fell in the semifinals on their home court to Cal State L.A. in a three-set sweep. But in 2019, they went 33-0 and won it all. In last week's season-opening Chaminade Tournament, CSSB went 4-0, starting with a come-from-behind five-set victory against the host Silverswords after dropping the first two sets. It also had a four-set win against then-No. 21 Lewis University. In the four matches, Junior 6-foot-2 middle blocker Jenna Patton slammed 48 kills and hit .364, and sophomore 6-foo-6 outside hitter Ashley Robinson added 44 kills. Redshirt senior 5-11 middle Lydia Morohunfola got her hands on 22 blocks with three solos.
 
SCOUTING THE BIOLA EAGLES: 2-1, 0-0 PAC WEST
All-time series: SPU leads, 1-0. Current series streak: SPU won 1. Last time: SPU 3, Biola 2 (25-14, 24-26, 28-26, 23-25, 15-11; Sept. 9, 2021 at Seattle. Eagles on the Web.
Eagles in a nutshell: Biola won two of its three matches in the Cal State San Marcos Invitational last week. It took one set from No. 4-ranked Metro State of Denver in the opener before falling in four, then came from two sets down to beat Saginaw Valley in five and swept host San Marcos. Sophomore 5-foot-10 opposite Anna Aubele was by far the biggest threat on offense with 51 kills, 24 of those coming against Saginaw Valley. She hits a solid .295. The next closest in kills was senior 5-11 outside hitter Madison Beebe with 27. The offense flows through 5-11 redshirt senior setter Abby Brewster, who had 119 of the team's 138 assists. Senior 6-2 middle blocker Abigail Copeland recorded a team-high 11 blocks, with four solos.
 
SCOUTING THE CAL STATE L.A. GOLDEN EAGLES: 2-2, 0-0 CCAA
All-time series: CSULA leads, 8-5. Current series streak: CSULA won 1. Last time: CSULA 3, SPU 21 (25-17, 20-25, 25-19, 25-17; Sept. 5, 2015 at Los Angeles). Last SPU series win: SPU 3, CSULA 0 (25-17, 25-17, 25-19; Sept. 5, 2014 at Seattle). Golden Eagles on the Web.
Golden Eagles in a nutshell: Cal State L.A. went 2-2 at the Western Washington Tournament in Bellingham against two opponents then in the top 25 (a five-set victory against No. 21 Ferris State and a three-set loss to No. 3 WWU), and two others receiving votes (a four-set loss to Regis, a five-set win against Simon Fraser). Setting the pace along the front row for the Eagles was sophomore 6-foot-2 opposite Emily Elliott, with her 65 kills on .261 hitting. Of those 65 kills, 26 came on 54 swings against Simon Fraser, when she finished at .333 hitting. Elliott also delivered a team-high 11 service aces. Iane Henke, a freshman 6-1 outside hitter, added 39 kills. Junior 6-1 middle blocker Shelby Grubbs was a force defensively with 17 blocks in 17 sets. Thanks in part to that pair of five-setters, the Eagles put 203 kills onto the floor for the tournament on 518 attacks.
 
SCOUTING THE CHAMINADE SILVERSWORDS: 3-4, 0-0 PAC WEST
All-time series: SPU leads, 12-8. Current series streak: SPU won 1. Last time: SPU 3, CU 1 (26-24, 19-25, 27-25, 30-28; Sept. 14, 2019 at Pomona, Calif). Last CU series win: CU 3, SPU 0 (25-17, 25-20, 25-13; Aug. 13, 2018 at Fresno, Calif.). Silverswords on the Web.
Silverswords in a nutshell: Chaminade has won 20-plus matches for the past three full seasons: 23 in 2018, then 22 in 2019, and a whopping 27 last year. The Swords got an early jump on the 2022 season. It hosted the Hawaii-Alaska Challenge on Aug. 19-20, falling once to Anchorage and splitting two matches with Fairbanks. At last weekend's Magic Island Hawaii Classic, Chaminade went to five sets with No. 7 Cal State San Bernardino before coming up short and fell to No. 21 Lewis in a sweep, but defeated Stanislaus State in four and San Francisco State in five. This is an incredibly balanced team, as five players are within nine kills of each other: senior 6-foot opposite / outside hitter Brooklen Pe'a (62), 6-foot sophomore outside Greta Corti (60), 6-2 grad student middle Sasha Colombo (59), senior 6-1 middle Sophie Schilling (56), and 6-2 senior middle Lataisia Saulala (53).
 
COACH JASON RHINE SAYS …
 

(On last weekend's tournament)
"Having had some time to reflect, it was kind of what we expected. There was some really good competition, some up-and-down play from both us and the other teams. We got a little tired by the end, but we were still working on getting better and trying to compete well all through the weekend, which was an exciting start for us."
 
(On some individual highlights)
"For the whole weekend, our outsides played really consistently. They got a lot of kills through the weekend, and they did a good job of having to pass, having ball control, having to play defense and keep the ball in. But there were also opportunities to get kills, and they did a great job of that."
 
(On this weekend's tournament in L.A.)
"It's going to be some more good teams. We've had some good practices and had a chance to fix a couple things we've been working on, so it will be good to put them into play against some real opponents."
 
CUNNINGHAM DIGS UP AWARD
Falcons sophomore setter Abigail Cunningham was named to the All-Tournament team for last weekend's Concordia St. Paul-St. Cloud State Invitational.
 
 

Cunningham played in all 13 sets and came up with 60 digs, an average of 4.61 per set. Her total included a career-high 25 in a four-setter against Minnesota Duluth on Saturday to conclude the tournament. Her previous best was 19 last Oct. 2 at home against Western Oregon.
 
Along with her defensive work Cunningham earned 17 assists for the weekend and sent four service aces across the net.
 
This was Cunningham's first award of any kind.
 
A PAIR OF W's FOR FORMER COACH WRIGHT
Abbie Wright, who coached SPU for the past five seasons, made her debut as Fresno State's interim head coach last weekend at the College of Charleston Classic in South Carolina.
 
The Bulldogs played an exhibition match prior to the tournament, defeating Charleston Southern in four sets last Thursday.
 
Then in the two-day tourney, Fresno State dropped a five-gamer to host College of Charleston, fell in four to Rutgers, then swept The Citadel in three.
 
Wright was named associate head coach last Feb. 28 and was elevated to interim head coach on May 20 when former coach Jonathan Winder left to coach the men's team at Pepperdine.
 
AROUND THE WEST
A trio of GNAC teams won all four of their matches at various season-opening tournaments last weekend, and Alaska Anchorage went undefeated through a second straight weekend of preseason play.
 
The Seawolves (7-0), who won all three matches at the Hawaii-Alaska Challenge on Aug. 18-20 in Honolulu without even dropping a set, racked up three more sweeps plus a five-set victory at their own Seawolf Volleyball Invite.
 
Western Washington, ranked No. 3 nationally, went 4-0 at its own WWU Volleyball Invitational. Montana State Billings hosted its Opening Weekend Tournament and won all four. Saint Martin's played in that same NSUB tournament and won all four of its matches.
 
Cal State San Bernardino is the only California Collegiate Athletic Association team to come out of the first weekend with a perfect 4-0 mark, having played in the Chaminade Tournament. Cal State East Bay, Sonoma State, and Stanislaus State went 3-1 in their various tournaments.
 
The Pacific West Conference has just one unbeaten team, as Holy Names is 4-0 after its weekend at the Green Chile Classic in Silver City, N.M. Azusa Pacific is 3-1 from its trip to the Northwest Nazarene Invitational in Nampa, Idaho. The only loss for the Cougars was a three-set sweep to the host Nighthawks.

AROUND THE GNAC
Click on this link for a look at news, notes, results, and stats from around the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
 
UP NEXT
As if the preseason wasn't challenging enough, Seattle Pacific begins GNAC play next week with another couple of tough ones. Up first is a trip to current No. 3-ranked Western Washington on Thursday, Sept. 8 at 7:00 p.m. in Bellingham. Then on Saturday, Sept. 10, the Falcons cross the border into Canada for a 5:00 p.m. contest at Simon Fraser.
 
 
GNAC STANDINGS
                                                      GNAC          Overall
Alaska Anchorage          0-0       7-0
Montana State Billings    0-0       4-0
Saint Martin's            0-0       4-0
Western Washington        0-0       4-0
Alaska Fairbanks          0-0       6-2
Northwest Nazarene        0-0       3-1
Central Washington        0-0       2-2
Simon Fraser              0-0       2-2
Western Oregon            0-0       2-2
Seattle Pacific           0-0       1-3