Sports

UAA volleyball team makes quick exit from playoffs

The best volleyball season in UAA history ended in defeat Thursday in Nampa, Idaho.

The Seawolves, who set school records for best winning percentage and fewest losses this season, lost their first-round match at the NCAA Division II West Region tournament.

Sonoma State knocked off UAA 26-24, 25-18, 14-25, 25-11 with a hitting attack that survived 15 UAA blocks.

UAA finished the season with a 21-6 record. Its .778 winning percentage is the best in program history, bettering the .742 marks recorded by the 1986 and 2009 teams. Until this year, the fewest losses in a single season was eight.

"It was sad, obviously. We were upset after not making a run deeper into the tournament," UAA coach Chris Green said by phone after the match. "It was a good season. Having the best winning percentage is a huge accomplishment and hopefully something to build on."

UAA outblocked Sonoma State 15-8, with sophomore middle blocker Kayla McGlathery notching two solo blocks and lending a hand on eight others. Junior outside hitter Julia Mackey had a hand in seven blocks.

Neither team hit particularly well, but the Californians' .189 attack percentage topped UAA's .123. UAA entered the match with a .219 attack percentage and had enjoyed some of its best offensive matches of the season in the last two weeks.

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"I think we played pretty well," Green said. "We just weren't offensively efficient. Our blocking and defense, we did well enough to win.

"They served pretty tough, and sometimes we had trouble passing. And they had a huge block -- they run a 6-2, so there's no smaller players we could try to take advantage of."

The first set proved pivotal. Sonoma State (21-6) took a big lead, 19-13, but UAA battled back to tie it 20-20, UAA led 24-23 after a kill by Erin Braun, but Sonoma State scored three straight points to win the set.

"I thought that was a huge difference-maker," Sonoma State coach Bear Grassl said at a post-match press conference.

Green agreed.

"We just couldn't put it away," he said.

Sonoma State used a late run to take the second set and UAA cruised in the third set. But the fourth set belonged to the California College Athletic Association champs, who scored 11 of the match's final 12 points to advance to Friday's semifinals.

The winner of the eight-team tournament will advance to national quarterfinals.

Sonoma State limited UAA kill leader Katelynn Zanders to eight kills and a .074 attack percentage. Brooke Pottle, playing her final college match, had a team-high 11 kills and McGlathery added 10.

"I thought we did an excellent job defending them," Grassl said. "We took their better players out of the game; we forced other people to have to beat us."

The Seawolves had a disruptive night before the match, which started early in the afternoon. The fire alarm at their hotel went off at 3 a.m., forcing an evacuation.

"It was not good," Green said. "We were out of our beds and in the lobby until 3:30. We talked about it a little bit, but you've gotta deal with it and go out and play."

The match was the last for three players and possibly a fourth. Pottle, Quinn Barker and Maureen Sabato are all seniors, while junior Sarah Johnson's academic demands are likely to end her career a year early. Green said the nursing program Johnson will join next year has classes Thursday and Friday nights and will make other academic demands on the South High graduate.

"She's trying to figure it out," Green said, added that it's likely Johnson won't be on the team next season.

Barker had 13 digs Thursday to cap a season in which she finished with double-figure digs in every match. Zanders and Morgan Hooe each had 11 digs and Mackey had 10. Zanders' eight kills vaulted her past Sabrina Bingham and into fifth place on UAA's all-time kill list with 1,017.

Sonoma State was led by Caylie Seitz's 17 kills, Madelyn Densberger's 15 kills and Kaitlyn Connolly's 18 digs.

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