SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – On a day when they needed all the offense they could find, the Seattle Pacific Falcons just couldn't find enough of it.
 
On the other side of the net, the Cal State Los Angeles Golden Eagles found more than enough.
 
CSULA put 59 kills onto the court, limited SPU to just 36 and subsequently cut short the Falcons' first NCAA Tournament trip in 12 years with a 3-1 first-round victory on Thursday afternoon at the West Regionals.
 
Scores in Coussoulis Arena on the Cal State San Bernardino campus were 25-13, 21-25, 25-19, 25-20.
 
The No. 5-seeded Falcons, with their first postseason appearance and first Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship since 2011, finished with a 22-5 record.
 
 

"Overall, I'm really  proud of our team and how they came together and worked really hard and worked together as a unit to compete well and have fun and play the game hopefully the right way," head coach Jason Rhine said. "It was fun to make it out here to regionals and get that experience. I know it meant a lot to all of our players. Coming out of this, they'll be hungry to get back and hopefully push a little further."
 
Senior outside hitter Sarah Brachvogel and senior middle blocker Hannah Hair had eight kills apiece for Seattle Pacific, and grad student opposite Maddie Pruden added six.
 
But No. 4 seed Cal State L.A. (19-10), which won last year's regional tournament and subsequently went all the way to the national Final Four, had three players in double digits: 18 for West Player of the Year Emily Elliott, 14 for Iane Henke, and 11 for Ashley Dittman.
 
Hair's eight kills, along with her four block assists, gave her 10 points for the day – just enough to push her past 1,000 for her career, the 19^th Falcon to reach that milestone. She now has 1,000.5.
 
The Golden Eagles hit a solid .250 for the day, including .500 in the first set, .316 in the third when they roared back from a 10-4 deficit, and .275 in the fourth.
 
Seattle Pacific finished at just .092 and were below .100 in three of the four sets.
 
 

"It was rough at the start, but I thought we did a good job of settling down and responding well – in Set 2 especially," Rhine said.. "All three other sets (except for Set 1) felt like they could have gone either way. Defensively, we did a pretty good job. We slowed down Dittman, who is one of their aggressive hitters, but they have other hitters who are going to get kills, and they did about what they normally do"
 
The teams were almost dead-even in total attacks (144 CSULA, 142 SPU), and both had 23 attack errors. Ditto for points on blocks (9-8 for L.A.) and service aces (6-5 for Seattle Pacific).
 
The Eagles just found the floor far more frequently, getting double-digit kills in each of the four sets while the Falcons reached double-digits in just one set (11 in the third).
 
"Offensively, it was tough, and they served us tough," Rhine said. "At the end of the day, we came up a few kills short We had some good opportunities toward the end of Sets 3 and 4. Sometimes, a couple points don't go your way, and they were able to pull away and finish the set."
 
SLOW START, BUT THEN A BOUNCEBACK
Cal State L.A. took charge of the opening set with a 7-0 run that expanded a 9-6 lead all the way to 16-6. It was 21-9 when the Falcons finally got their 10^th point on the board.
 
 

Seattle Pacific turned the tables early in Set 2, putting together its own 7-0 surge to turn a 6-4 deficit into an 11-5 lead, the last six of those points coming with Brachvogel on the serve. The Golden Eagles got as close as 13-11, the  later came within three at 17-14. Freshman setter Sophia Chambers took over the serve, started with an ace, and the Falcons pushed it all the way out to 22-14.
 
At 24-17, CSULA rang up four points in a row before Hair clinched the set on a quick kill.
 
SPU kept it going at the outset of the third, racing to a 10-4 lead. The Golden Eagles responded with eight of the next nine points, and just like that, they were on top at 12-11. Seattle Pacific edged back in front at 15-14, then L.A. came back with five in a row to go ahead for good.
 
Needing Set 4 to stay alive, the Falcons quickly found themselves down 9-4. They answered with a 10-2 run, with freshman libero Christina Lopez on the serve for four of those points, and took a 14-11 lead. The Eagles turned that around to go up 19-16. SPU rallied back to 19-19 and was still within reach at 21-20.
 
CSULA then scored the final four points to put it away.
 
AN SPU FIRST FOR WILKS
Senior middle blocker Allison Wilks finished the season with a .404 hitting percentage, with 162 kills and just 32 errors on 322 attacks.
 
That made her the first Falcon in history to finish the year north of .400. The previous single-season best was .382 by then-freshman Nikki Lowell in 2010.
 
BY THE NIUMBERS
-- Hannah Hair had 160 total blocks for the season (35 solo). Her final per-set average was 1.63.
--  Freshman setter Sophia Chambers recorded a double-double of 16 assists and 13 digs. That was her team-leading 12th double-double of the year.
-- Allison Wilks, Sarah Brachvogel, and junior setter Emily Tulino played in all 101 sets. It marks the second year in a row that Wilks and Tulino and Wilks were on the court for every set.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLYEBALL
West Regional
Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023
Coussoulis Arena / San Bernardino, Calif.
 
Cal State Los Angeles 3, Seattle Pacific 1
 
Game scores – 25-13, 21-25, 25-19, 25-20.
 
Service aces – SPU 6 (Brachvogel 3), CSULA 5 (Sanders 3).
Kills – SPU 36 (Hair 8, Brachvogel 8), CSULA 59 (Elliott 18).
Assists – SPU 33 (Chambers 16, Tulino 14), CSULA 47 (Cannon 35).
Digs – SPU 57 (Lopez 19, Chambers 13), CSULA 64 (Henke 16).
Block assists / solo – SPU 12 / 2 solo (Hair 4 / 0 solo), CSULA 18 / 0 solo (Cannon and Roundtree 5 / 0 solo).
Hitting (kills-errors-attacks) – SPU 36-23-142—092 (Hair 8-3-22—227), CSULA 59-23-144—250 (Grubbs 5-1-8—500, Roundtree 8-2-13—462).
Attendance – 202.
 
 
Records
Seattle Pacific 22-5.
Cal State Los Angeles 19-10.
 
Next match
Season complete.