Top-ranked Fresno Pacific sweeps into final
By Terry Hersom | Posted: Sunday, December 07, 2008
With seven seniors gone from a year ago, California Baptist didn't have enough firepower to handle this rematch from last year's NAIA volleyball championship clash, bowing in three straight games to top-ranked Fresno Pacific in semifinal action Saturday morning, 25-18, 28-26, 25-23.
That isn't to say the underdog Lancers didn't put up an impressive fight with a young team that could be a strong pre-season No. 1 candidate next year.
Noelle Dyk, a 6-2 junior who played two seasons at the University of North Carolina, took match honors with 17 kills and had a .325 hitting performance for Cal Baptist, bowing out at 28-9.
Although the sweep was no different from two previous meetings with the Golden State Athletic Conference champs, Dyk and her teammates definitely had their chances, leading 22-19 late in the second set and 15-9 midway through the third.
With only one senior on their roster, libero Katrina Clark, the Lancers' lack of experience may have prevented them from making either of those leads hold up.
"They do have a lot of experience and skills we need to work on, I'll give them that,'' said Dyk.
Dyk's older brother, Shaun, played two years of men's volleyball at Cal Baptist as a transfer from North Carolina State, where Ryan McGuyre, now in his seventh season as head coach at the Riverside, Calif., school, was formerly a graduate assistant coach.
Now, the outside hitter from Mooresville, N.C., hopes to come back a year from now and cap off her college career with an even better showing.
Standing in her way this time was a potent and experienced Fresno Pacific squad with four talented foreign imports. Fabiana Leomil and 6-foot 4-inch Thais Julio, two seniors from Brazil, each had 13 kills to help the Sunbirds reach the title match for a third year in a row.
Senior setter Shu Liu, a Chinese athlete who last year's national player of the year, had 43 assists for the winners, who also got eight kills from senior Brittany Pierce and seven from 6-3 sophomore Ke Ke Wang, also from China.
This was the fifth national semifinal in as many years for California Baptist, which won back-to-back titles in 2004 and 2005, lost a 2006 semifinal, then dropped last year's four-game final to the Sunbirds.
McGuyre's team should be in the hunt again with virtually everyone returning along with Ingrid Carmona, a talented freshman outside hitter from the Dominican Republic who suffered a season-ending knee injury in her very first match for the Lancers.
That isn't to say the underdog Lancers didn't put up an impressive fight with a young team that could be a strong pre-season No. 1 candidate next year.
Noelle Dyk, a 6-2 junior who played two seasons at the University of North Carolina, took match honors with 17 kills and had a .325 hitting performance for Cal Baptist, bowing out at 28-9.
Although the sweep was no different from two previous meetings with the Golden State Athletic Conference champs, Dyk and her teammates definitely had their chances, leading 22-19 late in the second set and 15-9 midway through the third.
With only one senior on their roster, libero Katrina Clark, the Lancers' lack of experience may have prevented them from making either of those leads hold up.
"They do have a lot of experience and skills we need to work on, I'll give them that,'' said Dyk.
Dyk's older brother, Shaun, played two years of men's volleyball at Cal Baptist as a transfer from North Carolina State, where Ryan McGuyre, now in his seventh season as head coach at the Riverside, Calif., school, was formerly a graduate assistant coach.
Now, the outside hitter from Mooresville, N.C., hopes to come back a year from now and cap off her college career with an even better showing.
Standing in her way this time was a potent and experienced Fresno Pacific squad with four talented foreign imports. Fabiana Leomil and 6-foot 4-inch Thais Julio, two seniors from Brazil, each had 13 kills to help the Sunbirds reach the title match for a third year in a row.
Senior setter Shu Liu, a Chinese athlete who last year's national player of the year, had 43 assists for the winners, who also got eight kills from senior Brittany Pierce and seven from 6-3 sophomore Ke Ke Wang, also from China.
This was the fifth national semifinal in as many years for California Baptist, which won back-to-back titles in 2004 and 2005, lost a 2006 semifinal, then dropped last year's four-game final to the Sunbirds.
McGuyre's team should be in the hunt again with virtually everyone returning along with Ingrid Carmona, a talented freshman outside hitter from the Dominican Republic who suffered a season-ending knee injury in her very first match for the Lancers.
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