NCAA WEST REGIONAL SCHEDULE 
Coussoulis Arena / San Bernardino, Calif. 
 
FIRST ROUND 
Thursday, Nov. 30                  MATCH 1: No. 4 Cal State Los Angeles vs. No. 5 Seattle Pacific, Noon 
                                         MATCH 2: No. 1 Chaminade vs. No. 8 San Francisco State, 2:30 p.m. 
                                         MATCH 3: No. 3 Cal Poly Pomona vs. No. 6 Point Loma Nazarene, 5:00 p.m. 
                                         MATCH 4: No. 2 Cal State San Bernardino vs. No. 7 Central Washington, 7:30 p.m. 
 
SEMIFINALS 
Friday, Dec. 1                          MATCH 5: Winner 1 vs. Winner 2, 5:00 p.m. 
                                         MATCH 6: Winner 3 vs. Winner 4, 7:30 p.m. 
 
CHAMPIONSHIP 
Saturday, Dec. 2                    MATCH 7: Winner 5 vs. Winner 6, 7:00 p.m.                                   
                 
Thursday main live streaming page
SPU-Cal State LA live streaming page
Friday main live streaming page
Saturday main live streaming page
Live stats (all matches)
 

SEATTLE – Now, it gets real. 
 
All season, the Seattle Pacific Falcons set their sights on making the NCAA Tournament. On Nov. 11, they clinched a spot in the tournament. Then on Nov. 20, SPU was announced on the national selection show that it was officially in the tournament. 
 
It's time to go play – and the Falcons won't have to sit around all day waiting to do it. 
 
That's because they are in the first of Thursday's four quarterfinal matches. As the No. 5 seed, Seattle Pacific will face No. 4 seeded Cal State Los Angeles, with the first serve at noon. 
 
The Falcons will take the court with a 22-4 season record and the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship in their back pocket. Cal State L.A. will come in as the co-champions of the California Collegiate Athletic Association and with a 18-10 overall record. 
 
This will be SPU's first national tournament appearance in 12 years. 
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE 
All tournament matches will be streamed live on the Hudl platform. All matches are on a pay-per-view basis, with a cost of $9.95 for one match or $29.95 for the entire tournament. Users will be able to access the matches through ncaa.com and an OTT app – "NCAA Championships Pass" – available on Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and Google TV devices. 
 
Free live stats will be available for all matches. 
 
Links for streaming information and for live stats are available at the top of his story. 
 
HERE'S HOW IT ALL WORKS 
The NCAA Division II tournament is a full 64-team bracket. As with several other Division II sports, it is broken into eight regional tournaments around the country, each with eight participating teams. All conference champions or conference tournament champions are automatic qualifiers; the other slots are filled on an at-large basis, as determined by each region's final rankings. 
 
Of the eight regional tournaments, seven will start on Thursday with first-round (quarterfinal) matches, followed by semifinals on Friday and the finals on Saturday. The Southeast Regional will go Friday-Saturday-Sunday. 
 
The eight regional champions qualify for the Elite Eight, set for next Thursday-Saturday, Dec. 7-9, in Moon Township, Pennsylvania.. 
 




SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK? 
-- The Falcons are 2-7 all-time in NCAA West Regionals. 
-- This season, they played No. 7 seed Central Washington twice (winning both matches, 3-2) and and No. 6 Point Loma Nazarene once (losing 3-1 at PLNU's Seaside Invitational). 
-- Seattle Pacific has played Cal State Los Angeles twice in the NCAAs, losing 3-1 in 2005 and winning 3-2 in 2010. 
-- Last year, SPU came up against Cal State San Bernardino, Cal State Los Angeles, and Chaminade at the CSULA Invitational. The San Bernardino match went to a fifth set before the Coyotes won. The Golden Eagles and Silverswords both scored 3-0 wins. 
-- Ashley Dittman had 16 kills and hit .448 for CSULA; Emily Elliott and Ione Henke added 10 kills apiece. SPU got seven kills from now-graduated Ashley Antoniak. 
-- The next day against Chaminade, the Silverswords got 11 kills from now-graduated Sasha Colombo. Maddie Pruden had eight on .583 hitting for SPU. 
-- Seattle Pacific last faced No. 3 seed Cal Poly Pomona and No. 8 San Francisco State within a span of six days during the 2019 preseason. The Gators won 3-1 at the Seaside Invitational. SF State won 3-1 at the Seaside Invitational. The following week in the D2 West Region Showcase at Pomona, the Falcons started off the tournament with a 3-2 victory against the host Broncos. 
-- Thursday's opener against Cal State Los Angeles will feature two conference Players of the Year: middle blocker Hannah Hair for the Falcons and opposite Emily Elliott of the Golden Eagles. 
-- CSULA made it to Seattle last December for the Elite Eight at the Division II Fall Sports Festival, sweeping Gannon of Pennsylvania in the national quarterfinals, 3-0, then falling to eventual runner-up Concordia-St. Paul in the semifinals, 3-0. 
-- Seattle Pacific is 14-3 in out-of-town matches this fall: 9 -2 in true road matches, 5-1 on neutral courts. Thursday's match and, if they win it, Friday's semifinal, would be considered neutral court for the Falcons. 
-- After going back and forth with Central Washington, SPU finished No. 2 behind the Wildcats for highest hitting percentage (.232; Central was at .248) and lowest opponent's hitting (.150; Central was at .147). 
-- That .232 was Seattle Pacific's best season percentage since finishing at .236 in 1994. 
-- The Falcons kept seven opponents below .100 hitting in 26 matches – and won all of them. 
-- At 2.74 blocks per set, the Falcons were No. 2 in the GNAC behind Central Washington's 2.77. They rank No. 3 nationally. 
-- Playing in a 6-2 system with freshman Sophia Chambers, junior Emily Tulino still ranked No. 8 in the GNAC at 5.71 assists per set, with 554 total. Both were single-season career bests. 
-- Tulino is one of three Falcons to play in all 97 sets this season, along with outside hitter / opposite Sarah Brachvogel and middle blocker Allison Wilks. Opposite / middle Erin Smith was in 96, opposite Maddie Pruden in 95, and middle Hannah Hair in 94. 
-- Matter of fact, Tulino and Wilks played in all 100 sets last season. Hair and Pruden also played in all 100. 
-- SPU was 15-1 when winning Set 1 this season. It was 7-3 when coming from behind after the opening set. 
-- Against tournament opponents, coach Jason Rhine is 0-1 vs. Cal State Los Angeles, Chaminade, Cal State San Bernardino and Point Loma Nazarene, 4-0 vs. Central Washington, and 0-0 against Cal Poly Pomona and San Francisco State.  
 
SCOUTING THE CAL STATE LOS ANGELES GOLDEN EAGLES: 18-10, 15-3 CCAA (tie 1st) 
All-time series: CSULA leads, 9-5.  Current series streak: CSULA won 2.  Last time: CSULA 3, SPU 0 (25-22, 25-20, 25-17; Sept. 2, 2022 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. played in two top-flight preseason tournaments. Of the seven opponents, they faced, six of them are now in the NCAA Tournament. So even with a 2-6 start, the consensus was that this was still a high-quality team, and the Golden Eagles subsequently went out and proved it. They put together a nine-match winning streak in CCAA play to vault to the top of the standings and eventually wound up tied with Cal State San Bernardino for first place before falling to the Coyotes in the CCAA Tournament finals, 3-1. Leading the way for L.A. is junior 6-foot-2 opposite and CCAA Player of the Year Emily Elliott. She has 478 kills with a .252 She also has delivered 51 service aces and come up with 67 blocks on the way to an eye-popping 566.5 points. Sophomore 6-3 outside hitter Iane Henke is just as big a threat on the front row with 322 kills on .235 hitting. She sent 58 aces across the net and got her hands on 54 blocks, with a team-high 15 solos. Ashley Dittman, a senior 6-1 outside, added 241 kills on .225 hitting. A big presence on the block is junior 5-11 middle Haley Roundtree with 108 total. 
 
IF SPU WINS, POTENTIAL SEMIFINAL OPPONENTS
SCOUTING THE CHAMINADE SILVERSWORDS: 29-3, 17-3 Pac West (2nd) 
All-time series: SPU leads, 12-9.  Current series streak: CU won 1.  Last time: CU 3, SPU 0 (25-22, 25-17, 27-25; Sept. 3, 2022 at Los Angeles).  Last SPU series win: SPU 3, CU 1 (26-24, 19-25, 27-25, 30-28; Sept. 14, 2019 at Pomona).  Silverswords on the Web. 
Silverswords in a nutshell: Chaminade got off to a 12-0 start and was the last West Region team to take a loss. The Silverswords subsequently put together another 10-match winning streak, then finished the regular season by winning six straight, the last four of those in 3-0 sweeps. Most teams would be thrilled to have one player with 300-plus kills; Chaminade has two: sophomore 6-1 opposite Ajack Malual with 368 on .280 hitting, and senior 6-1 outside hitter Greta Corta with 337 on .197 hitting. Malual can serve it as well as she can kill it, with a team-high 49 aces, and she also factored into 64 blocks. Mahala Ka'apuni, a sophomore 5-9 outside, joints Malual and Corta as a front-row force with 270 kills. Then there's junior 6-1 middle blocker Lizanyela Lopez who not only added 185 kills on .322 hitting, she had 107 total blocks with 23 solos, both of which are team bests. Senior 6-1 middle Sophie Schilling is right alongside her on the stats list with 184 kills on .334 hitting and 87 blocks (12 solo). 
 
SCOUTING THE SAN FRANCISCO STATE GATORS: 18-10, 13-5 CCAA (tie 3rd) 
All-time series: SPU leads, 6-4.  Current series streak: SFS won 2.  Last time: SFS 3, SPU 1 (17-25, 25-12, 25-21, 25-12; Sept. 7, 2019 at San Diego).  Last SPU series win: SPU 3, SFS 2 (25-23, 23-25, 12-25, 25-23, 15-10; Sept. 3, 2010 at Rohnert Park, Calif.).  Gators on the Web. 
Gators in a nutshell: San Francisco State was hovering around the .500 mark for most of the year before winning five in a row and seven of its last eight regular-season matches, then reaching the semifinals of the CCAA Tournament, where it was swept by Cal State L.A. Keying the attack for the Gators is sophomore 5-8 right side Tamiya Wilson, who hammered 377 kills at .258 accuracy. She also logged a team-leading 39 aces, came up with 252 digs and 30 blocks. Also a threat up front is redshirt junior 5-10 outside hitter Izzy Issak with 291 kills, and junior 6-foot middle blocker Trinity Yates, who had 211. Yates hits at an eye-popping .426 percentage with just 45 errors on 390 attacks. She also factored into 57 blocks, just one behind team leader Rebecca Rendahl.  Led by freshman 5-8 libero Asia Abaugh's 292, San Francisco State has five player who came up with 200-plus digs. 
 
THROUGH THE YEARS AT NCAAs 
This will be Seattle Pacific's seventh trip to the NCAA Tournament. The first five (2000-01-05-06-09) and the most recent one (2011) ended with first-round losses. 
 
Then there was the 2010 tournament in San Bernardino. It was a record-setting season for the Falcons, and they came in as the No. 2 seed behind the host Coyotes. The Falcons came in with a 24-2, their only losses being one at Western Washington and one at Alaska Anchorage during GNAC play. 
 
Interestingly enough, SPU's first round opponent was … Cal State Los Angeles, The Falcons, ranked No. 14 at the time, took the first set, then dropped the next two. Needing Set 4 to stay alive, they were down 13-6, then went on a 16-6 scoring run for a 22-19 lead. The finally won the set, 25-23, the pulled away in the deciding fifth, 15-6. 
 
That set up yet another match against Western, ranked No. 15. It also went the distance, as the Vikings came back from 2-1 down to force a fifth, and SPU won that, 15-11. 
 
For the first time in program history, Seattle Pacific was in the regional final, against powerhouse Cal State San Bernardino. The Coyotes were ranked No. 6, but the Falcons hung right with them through the first two sets, 25-22, 25-22. CSSB found some added punch in the third, winning it 25-14. 
 
HAIR DOUBLES HER AWARDS FUN … 
Whether she's blocking the ball or killing it, Hannah Hair did plenty of both this fall – and did it well enough that she won two major conference awards, being named the GNAC Player of the Year and the Defensive Player of the Year. 
 

 
Heading into the NCAAs, Hair has 156 total blocks – 41 more than her previous single-season high of 115 in 2021. Her 1.66 per-set average leads all of Division II. In fact, she took the D2 lead in that category in late September and has been in the No. 1 spot ever since. 
 
She was named the GNAC Defensive Player of the Week three times. 
 
On offense, Hair hammered 155 kills at .317 hitting accuracy. She had six error-free matches, one of which came on Sept. 2 in a 3-0 sweep of Cal State San Marcos to finish the Seaside Invite. Hair had 10 kills on 12 attacks in that one, an .833 percentage that tied the single-match school record. 
 
… AND HAS PLENTY OF SPU COMPANY 
The Falcons made their presence felt in a big way when the All-GNAC team was announced on Nov. 21. Joining Hair on the first team were outside hitter Sarah Brachvogel and middle blocker Allison Wilks. Setter Emily Tulino was on the honorable mention list. 
 
And after guiding Seattle Pacific to its first GNAC title since 2011, Jason Rhine was the top choice as the Coach of the Year. 
 

Brachvogel came through with some of her best performances toward the end of the season. She recorded double-digit kills in each of the last eight matches – a stretch that started with 21 at Northwest Nazarene on Oct. 21, and included 19 in the GNAC title-clinching match against Saint Martin's. Her total of 332 kills was more than the 224 Brachvogel had through the first three years of her career combined, and .223 hitting percentage was by far a single-season career best. 
 
Wilks has been as reliable as it gets when talking about accurate hitting. She comes into the NCAA Tournament at .417 with 157 kills and just 29 errors on 307attacks. She has nine error-free matches, including a stretch of three in a row during the first half of October. She is on pace to finish as the first full-season 400 hitter in program history. In addition, Wilks has 87 total blocks and has sent a team-leading 37 service aces across the net. 
 
Tulino has been a model of steadiness at setter. She racked up a single-season career best 554 assists, including the 1,500th of her career. She had a season-high 32 against Saint Martin's last Thursday. Tulino also is a big factor on the serve with 30 aces. 
 
Laying out the game plan for all of that was Rhine, After the Falcons went 15-13 last season and barely missed making the NCAAs, this year's team put together an 11-match winning streak, a seven-match streak, and finished the regular season by winning its last three in a row. The Falcons were among the GNAC's top three in highest hitting percentage, assists, blocks, aces, and lowest opponents' hitting percentage.

GAINING GROUND ON A GRAND
Hannah Hair comes into the NCAAs with 990.5 career points (kills-blocks-aces). If she can add at least another 9.5 points this week, she would become the 19th Falcon in program history to reach 1,000.

The most recent Seattle Pacific player to get to a grand was Maddie Batiste in 2021. She finished her career with 1,024.0 points.
 
THEY'LL BE BACK FOR MORE 
While several of SPU's top players are academic seniors, most of them have an additional year of athletic eligibility because the 2020 season – their true freshman year – was canceled because of the pandemic shutdown. 
 
Outside hitter Sarah Brachvogel, outside / opposite Sydney Perry, middle blockers Hannah Hair and Allison Wilks, opposite / middle Erin Smith, and defensive / serving specialist Zoe Shuckhart all are planning to return in 2024. 
 
All six did participate during the 2021 spring season, when teams were allowed to play informal independent schedules. But as was the case for all sports at the time, players were able to retain that year of eligibility even if they played during the spring. 
 
FROM HERE, THERE, AND EVERYWHERE 
While most of the Falcons are from either Washington or California, four other states also are represented on the 16-player roster. 
 
Libero / defensive specialist Abigail Cunningham hails from Oklahoma. Outside hitter / opposite Sydney Perry and libero Christina Lopez are from Arizona. Setter Sophia Chambers calls Texas home. Opposite Coco Barnett and setter Avery Veenendall are here all the way from Wisconsin. 
 
Chambers, Barnett, and Veenendall are the first players from their respective states to suit up for SPU.  
 
BALANCING ACT FOR PRUDEN 
One SPU player who's especially happy to be playing in the NCAAs – or even playing at all – is opposite Maddie Pruden. A year ago, she was still finalizing plans for grad school and wasn't sure if or how another year of volleyball would fit into those plans. 
 
 

It ultimately did fit in, and Pruden has been an impact player on the right side. She has pounded 164 kills this season, playing in 95 of Seattle's Pacific's 97 sets. She was also big on the block with 62, tying her single-season best from last year. She now has surpassed 600 career kills, 200 blocks, and 750 points.
 
The well-traveled Pruden, who also has lived in two other states and visited 36 states altogether with her family, hits the books just as hard as she hits the ball. With a 3.88 grade-point average and a three-time GNAC All-Academic selection, Pruden completed her undergrad degree in psychology and now is in the first year of a two-year master's program in marriage and family therapy.
 
MILESTONES IN THE MAKING 
In the making 
200th block           Erin Smith (has 187) 
300th block           Allison Wilks (has 288) 
500th assist          Sophia Chambers (has 378) 
500th block           Hannah Hair (has 467) 
500th point            Sydney Perry (has 497.0) 
1,000th point         Hannah Hair (has 990.5) 
 
Made last week 
100th dig               Brianna Ingram (has 101) 
400th kill              Erin Smith (has 416) 
500th point           Erin Smith (has 518.0) 
 
NATIONALLY SPEAKING 
Among the 278 volleyball program in NCAA Division II, the Falcons are: 
-- No. 3 in blocking at 2.74 per set (Regis 2.84). 
-- No. 12 in total blocks at 266.0 (Indiana of Pennsylvania 317.0). 
-- No. 32 in lowest opponents' percentage at .150 (Spring Hill .087). 
-- No. 47 in hitting percentage at .232 (Concordia-St. Paul  .322) 
 
Individually: 
--Hannah Hair No. 1 in blocks per set at 1.66. 
--Hair No. 2 in total blocks with 156 (162). 
 
 
GNAC FINAL STANDINGS 
                                                     GNAC           Overall 
Seattle Pacific          16-2      22-4 
Central Washington       14-4      20-6 
Western Washington       12-6      12-14 
Simon Fraser             11-7      16-10 
Saint Martin's           10-8      17-11 
Alaska Anchorage          8-10     16-17 
Alaska Fairbanks          7-11     14-18 
Northwest Nazarene        7-11     11-15 
Western Oregon            4-14     10-16 
Montana State Billings    1-17      3-25