LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The dream of capturing a national championship came to an end for the Cal State San Bernardino volleyball team. And a familiar opponent was front and center in that decision.
The Coyotes were met by three-time defending champion Concordia-St. Paul in the opening round of the NCAA Championships on Thursday and the top-ranked Golden Bears defeated the Coyotes 3-0 in a match played at Bellarmine University’s Knights Hall.
“Concordia-St. Paul played very well, like they always do,’’ said Coyotes head coach Kim Cherniss about the team that has now ended the Coyotes’ season in each of the last three years. “Our serve receive let us down today. We broke down in the second set and they transitioned very well.’’
Senior All-American Jane Chafeh led the Coyotes with a match-high 12 kills in the 30-28, 25-17, 25-20 loss. Fellow senior All-American Nicole Moore also reached double digits in kills with 10.
CSUSB was not effective on the serve receive as it had 10 service errors and eight receiving errors in the three-set match and their opponent took advantage.
The first set was a back-and-forth tussle that featured 16 ties and seven lead changes. Down 24-22, CSUSB fought back to tie the set at 24-all on a kill from junior Megan Johnson and a Golden Bear attack error.
Each team traded kills – one from CSP’s Emily Palkert and Chafeh to tie at 25-25. An attack error from Palkert gave the Coyotes the lead at 26-25 and CSP called time-out.
After the break, Palkert fired off consecutive kills and the advantage went back to the Golden Bears at 27-26.
Coyotes’ AVCA National Player of the Year Samantha Middleborn stopped the threat on a kill to tie at 27-27. Both teams had kills on consecutive points – one from Megan Carlson and another from Chafeh and the set was tied for the 16th time.
With Chafeh serving, the Golden Bears earned sideout with a kill from Carlson and went on to win the set at 30-28 on a solo block from Cassie Haag.
“We were right there in the first set,’’ Cherniss said. “We out-killed them in the set (19-15), but we just had a couple of balls that didn’t go our way.’’
Golden Bears coach Brady Starkey attributed the first set’s back-and-forth battle as a case of the nerves.
“That’s always a tough match against them because they’ve got talent and they’re well-coached,’’ he said. “I thought the first set was a little bit shaky as both teams played a little nervous. We did a good job of managing our way through it and got them out of rhythm. We played well enough to get the job done.’’
If the first set was close, the second went CSP’s way. The Golden Bears grabbed the lead early and never let go en route to a 25-17 win. Chafeh’s service ace closed an early gap at 11-10 CSP, but three straight kills pushed the Golden Bears up by four at 14-10 and CSUSB could not make a run.
Down 2-0, the Coyotes never let up in the third and decisive set. A Morgan Carty kill gave CSUSB a 19-18 lead. But a service error from All-American Camille Smith gave the ball back to the Golden Bears, who opened a 6-1 run down the stretch for the set and the match.
Middleborn, who was named the AVCA Player of the Year on Wednesday and the Daktronics Player of the Year earlier in the day, expressed her team’s feelings of coming up short.
“It isn’t that we have lost to the same team the last three years,’’ she said. “It’s that we’ve lost the last three years here. That’s tough because the goal is to win a national title.’’
CSUSB finished the season 28-3 and have now won at least 27 matches in each of the last five years.
“We all watched them on video and we all took notes,’’ Chafeh said. “It comes down that they played very well today.’’
The Golden Bears move on to the semifinals where they will face the winner of the Dowling/Clarion match at 3 p.m. EST Friday.
COYOTE NOTES: CSUSB owns an all-time record of 29-11 in NCAA Tournament play… The Coyotes’ 3-0 loss was their first three-set defeat since they were defeated by Alaska-Anchorage on Sept. 4… Middleborn finished the season with a .480 attack percentage and that establishes a school record, previously set by Kim Moronhunfola (.473) in 2001… All-American Jane Chafeh completed her career with 1,341 kills and ranks 4th on the all-time career list… Over the last three years, the Coyotes are 91-9 overall and 59-5 in CCAA play… The loss snapped CSUSB’s 15-match winning streak.
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