HAYWARD, Calif- Cal State East Bay held Sonoma State well below its average hitting percentag,e but
Keala Peterson,
Ally Sather and
Sarah Illingworth combined for 36 of the Seawolves' 45 kills to help defeat the Pioneers, 3-1 (26-24, 25-20, 19-25, 25-18), on Saturday night in the regular season-ending match for both teams at Pioneer Gym.
Sonoma State concludes the regular season with a 23-7 overall record -- identical to last year's record -- and a 15-7 mark in the CCAA. Cal State East Bay finished its first season as a member of the conference at 10-21 overall (8-14 CCAA).
Cal State East Bay jumped out to an early 5-1 lead in the opening set but each team traded sideouts until Sonoma State was able to even the score at 12-12. Then, the Pioneers held set point at 24-19 but the Seawolves made a ferocious comeback by reeling off seven straight points to take the first set victory, 26-24. SSU hit just .025 in the opening frame, with nine kills and eight errors in 40 attacks while CSUEB had 13 kills, eight errors in 43 attacks (.116).
The second set featured a see-saw battle from the start until Sonoma State rallied for four points to go ahead 10-6. The Seawolves would hold a decent lead until the Pioneers came to within one point at 19-18 but five consecutive points forced set point by Sonoma State (24-18). Cal State East Bay earned two points before Sather put the set away with kill for the 25-20 win in set two.
Tied at 5-5, the Pioneers went on a run that gave them a seven point lead at 21-14 but several back-and-forth rallies gave Cal State East Bay the 25-19 victory in set number three to close the Seawolves' match lead to 2-1. Sonoma State hit negatively (-.031) with eight kills and nine errors, opening the door for Pioneer success as they hit .200 with 13 kills and just six errors.
The Pioneers wouldn't go away easily, though, as Cal State East Bay forced six ties and three lead changes. They led 15-12 at one point but Sonoma State fought back to take a three-point lead at 20-17 and never looked back as the Seawolves closed out the 3-1 match victory with a 25-18 win in the fourth set.
Sonoma State hit just .113 for the match, well below their season average of .252. Peterson led the way with her 13th double-double this season with 14 kills and 10 digs, as well as five assisted blocks. Sather added 12 kills and Illingworth had 10 with six total blocks.
Lindsay Brown, who went over 1,000 assists for the season (and second time in her career) on Friday night against UC San Diego, passed out a game-high 42 assists.
Taylor Krenwinkel led the defense with 19 digs, her 38th consecutive match with at least 10 digs.
Ali Walker had 16 digs and added four kills.
For Cal State East Bay, Sukhjit Athwal had 14 kills and Katie Glomb had 16 digs.
Sonoma State, ranked third in the NCAA Division II West Region poll released on Thursday, will await word on its postseason fate when the NCAA Division II Women's Volleyball Championship Selection Show will stream live online Sunday at www.ncaa.com at 6 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. The top eight (8) teams from each region will make up the 64-team tournament with the championship match to take place on Dec. 5 at a site to be named later.
Box Score: #18 Sonoma State 3, Cal State East Bay 1