SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – They took the best team in the entirety of NCAA Division II volleyball to the absolute limit on Friday afternoon.
 
But at the end of the day, defending national champion Cal State Los Angeles was just a couple points better.
 
 

Sydney Perry had 12 kills and 12 digs for her second career double-double, Hannah Hair came up with another five blocks, but the No. 1-ranked Golden Eagles scored the final three points to erase a 13-12 Seattle Pacific lead in Set 5 and pull out a 3-2 victory on the second day of the Yotes Classic Showcase.
 
Scores in Cal State San Bernardino's Coussoulis Arena were 25-23, 18-25, 25-19, 25-27, 15-13.
 
The two teams met in the first round of last November's NCAA West Regionals, with CSULA winning 3-1 on the way to the program's first national crown.
 
 

"Obviously, a lot of emotions in that one, coming back from the end of last year, having to face L.A. again and Emily Elliott again," SPU coach Jason Rhine said. "I felt we did a good job of stepping up to the challenge.
 
"I thought we had a good game plan for them, knowing them a little bit better than some of the teams that hadn't played them recently," Rhine added. "We did a really good job of executing the game plan, and I thought L.A. did a good job of finding small margins to come up with some big points."
 
After facing No. 8 Cal State San Bernardino on Thursday, then No. 1 L.A. on Friday afternoon, the Falcons took on their third straight national top-25 opponent Friday evening. They dropped the first two sets to No. 21 Cal Poly Pomona, but bounced back to take the third and made a big run in the fourth before the Broncos secured a 3-1 victory, 25-19, 25-20, 22-25, 25-23.
 
Cal State Los Angeles 3, Seattle Pacific 2
CSULA's Emily Elliott, named the Most Outstanding Player of last year's NCAA Tournament, was a handful and then some for Seattle Pacific. She had 35 kills, the 34th of them flicking off a Falcon to set up match point at 14-13, and the 35th kissing the baseline to close it out.
 
Twice during the latter stages of the match – which went 2 hours, 15 minutes – No.19 Seattle Pacific came back from the brink of defeat to keep it going.
 
Down 2 sets to 1, the Falcons were in a 22-20 hole in Set 4. A Golden Eagles service error, an ace by Anna Pelluer, and a block by Allison Wilks put them on top, 23-22. From there, SPU had three tries at set point to force a deciding fifth. Los Angeles saved the first two for ties at 24-24 and 25-25. An Elliott attack that went wide put the Falcons on top 26-25, then Hair and Erin Smith combined on a block to finish it.
 
The fifth was even at 5-5 before CSULA ran off three straight to take an 8-5 advantage at the changeover. It was still a three-point spread at 11-8, then Seattle Pacific strung together three straight points: a kill by freshman outside hitter Eva LaRochelle, a tip by Hair, and an Eagles attack error.
 
The Falcons took their final lead at 13-12 on another L.A. attack error. Coming out of a timeout, Haley Roundtree tied it on a kill, Then came the last two by Elliott, who also was serving on those two points.
 
"It was a really fun match," Rhine said. "It hurts (to fall short), but I think afterward, we felt we played a high-level match against a good team that has one of the best players in the country."
 
The teams played a total 215 points, with the Golden Eagles winning 108 and Seattle Pacific 107.
 
Cal Poly Pomona 3, Seattle Pacific 1
Coco Barnett had nine kills and five block assists, and Allison Wilks had eight kills on .538 hitting with six block assists to lead the Falcons (0-3). Hannah Hair added four blocks, and Abigail Cunningham came up with 20 digs.
 
After their emotional, leave-it-all-on-the-court duel against CSULA, the Falcons had an early-match lull against Pomona and fell into a 15-6 hole in Set 1. The margin stayed between eight and nine points most of the way, never getting closer than five.
 
The Broncos then raced to a 10-1 lead in the second set, scoring the first three points, then putting together a 7-0 run after SPU finally got on the board. The Falcons trimmed a 24-15 deficit all the way down to 24-20 before CPP closed it out.
 
The third set featured nine ties and five lead changes. The last deadlock was at 20-20, and Seattle Pacific took the next two points on a kill by Wilks and a combined block by Wilks and Barnett for a 22-20 edge. With a double set point opportunity at 24-22 to stay alive, Wilks converted it with a service ace.
 
The Falcons started quickly in Set 4, building a 9-4 lead and forcing Pomona into an early timeout. The Broncos climbed back in, finally tying it at 11-11. That was the first of seven ties. The last one was at 21-21, and Cal Poly Pomona rang up the next three for triple-match point at 24-21. A net violation erased the first one, and a kill by Anna Pelluer cut it to 24-23.
 
But CPP, after taking its final timeout, locked it up on a kill by Alexia Athans.
 
"We did a really good job of playing defense and extending rallies," Rhine said. "In that sense, we won a lot of close rallies that were back and forth. The were serving really aggressively and they were able to knock us out of system.
 
"Sometimes, you just have to play back-and-forth volleyball, and sometimes, it just comes down to a lot of small plays," he added.
 
BY THE NUMBERS
-- Sydney Perry's 12 kills against Cal State L.A. came on 33 attacks with just four errors. She it .242. She added another eight kills with just one error on 21 attacks against Pomona for .333 hitting.
 

-- Falcon freshman opposite Coco Barnett had quite a day for herself. In the L.A. match, she had a career-high eight kills. She followed that with nine against Pomona.
-- Eva LaRochelle also had a career high for kills vs. CSULA, finishing with seven.
--Thanks to two solid sets (.391 in the second, .368 in the fifth), SPU finished the day at .209 hitting (48-20-134) vs. the Golden Eagles. Cal State L.A. finished at .217 (54-30-157).
-- Senior setter Emily Tulino had four of Seattle Pacific's nine service aces vs. L.A. She also racked up 22 assists and had 17 more against Pomona. Sophomore Sophia Chambers had 16 in Friday's first match and 17 in the second.
-- Allison Wilks was being her regular accurate-hitting self on Friday, finishing the day with 14 kills and just two errors on 23 attacks for a .522 percentage: 6-1-10--.500 vs. Cal State L.A. and 8-1-12--.538 vs. Cal Poly Pomona. Through the first three matches, she's now hitting .415 (21-4-41).
-- Fifth-year opposite Erin Smith totaled 14 kills on .231 hitting and had six block assists.
 
UP NEXT
The Falcons wrap up the tournament on Saturday at noon against Biola.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
Yotes Classic Showcase
Friday, Sept. 6, 2024
Coussoulis Arena / San Bernardino, Calif.
 
(No. 1) Cal State Los Angeles 3, (No. 19) Seattle Pacific 2
 
Game scores – 25-23, 18-25, 25-19, 25-27, 15-13.
 
Service aces – SPU 9 (Tulino 4), CSULA 6 (Cetin 2).
Kills – SPU 48 (Perry 12), CSULA 54 (Elliott 35).
Assists – SPU 43 (Tulino 22, Chambers 16), CSULA 55 (Beaver 28).
Digs – SPU 58 (Cunningham 18, Perry 12), CSULA 63 (Sanders 19).
Block assists / solo – SPU 10 / 2 solo (Hair 5 / 0 solo), CSULA 10 / 3 solo (Low 1 / 3 solo, Roundtree 4 / 0 solo).
Hitting (kills-errors-attacks) – SPU 48-20-134—209 (Wilks 6-1-10—500), CSULA 54-30-157—217 (Lowe 4-0-9—444, Elliott 35-11-71—338).
Attendance – 62.
 
(No. 21) Cal Poly Pomona 3, No. 19 Seattle Pacific 1
The Den / San Bernardino, Calif.
 
Game scores – 25-19, 25-20, 22-25, 25-23.
 
Service aces – SPU 4 (Pelluer 2), CPP 7 (Novak 2, Mueller 2).
Kills – SPU 46 (Barnett 9), CPP 54 (Ybarra 16).
Assists – SPU 42 (Chambers 17, Tulino 17), CPP 46 (Mueller 39)l
Digs – SPU 58 (Cunningham 20), CPP 64 (Percival 15).
Block assists / solo – SPU 20 / 0 solo (Wilks 6 / 0 solo), CPP 10 / 2 solo (Ybarra 4 / 0 solo, Athans 3 / 1 solo).
Hitting (kills-errors-attacks) – SPU 46-20-147—177 (Wilks 8-1-13—538), CPP 54-19-150—233 (McMullin 7-0-11—636.
Attendance – 87.
 
 
Records
Seattle Pacific 0-3.
Cal Poly Pomona 3-0.
 
Next match
Seattle Pacific vs. Biola
Saturday, Noon
Coussoulis Arena / San Bernardino, Calif.


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