Nov. 20, 2009
HOUSTON - Utah Valley University needed five sets Friday night in coming from behind to post a 22-25, 25-15, 22-25, 25-17, 15-6 victory over host Houston Baptist University to advance to the Great West Conference Championship match.
The second-seeded Wolverines (22-9) will face the No. 1 seed North Dakota Fighting Sioux Saturday at 1 p.m. (MT) for the title. The two teams split during the regular season.
"They (the Fighting Sioux) are a very good team, and what happened here today will help us," UVU volleyball coach Sam Atoa said. "I still feel like it is in our hands and I'm excited for the championship match."
Trailing two sets to one, the Wolverines forced the fifth and deciding set after erasing a three-point deficit early in the fourth set behind four kills from Kayli Broadbent and three by Camie Manwill. UVU took its first lead since early in the set at 11-10 on a HBU attack error. With the score tied at 11-11 the Wolverines scored six straight points to put the set out of reach at 17-11. Manwill served five of the points and Broadbent had three kills in the run. UVU went on the win the set 25-17.
HBU (13-20) led 3-0 in the final set, but a kill by Broadbent, who had 14 in the match, and four consecutive attack errors by HBU gave the Wolverines the lead for good at 5-3. After HBU cut the lead to one at 5-4, a HBU service error, a kill by Erica Nish, a member of the GWC All-Newcomer team, and two more HBU errors continued to propel the Wolverines.
Leading 10-5, Broadbent had two kills, Kathleen Stevens had a service ace, an error by HBU and a kill by Chelsea Fa'alogo, a second-team all-conference selection, lifted UVU to the 15-6 set and match victory.
"I was real proud of our girls. You have to give them the credit," Atoa said. "There were times that they didn't respond very well, especially in the first set, and they did later on and got better as time went on. I am proud of how they executed and how confident they were."
With the score tied at 1-1 in the first set, Broadbent served the next seven points - including two service aces - as the Wolverines jumped out to the 8-1 advantage. HBU slowly whittled away at the lead before tying the score at 14-14.
The Huskies finally took the lead in the set at 16-15 and then held on. UVU, however, pulled to within a point at 23-22 before back-to-back kills by the Huskies closed out the set.
The second set was tied three times early on. UVU's Sarah Clement recorded a kill to break the 6-6 tie, and the Wolverines cruised from there. With Allyce Jones serving, the UVU lead ballooned to as many as seven at 15-8. The Wolverines eventually won the set by 10 points on consecutive kills by Broadbent and Faith Tusieseina to even the match at 1-1.
Through the first two sets, Broadbent, the Great West Conference Player of the Year, had six kills, Manwill, a first-team selection had five, Fa'alogo had four to go along with 12 assists.
For the second time in the match the Wolverines lost a big lead. After trailing 7-5 in the third set the Wolverines went on an 11-5 run to take a 16-12 advantage. Dani Robison had two kills in the run. UVU surrendered the lead at 17-16 and again at 19-18. UVU had the HBU lead down to one two times before the Huskies closed out the set with a kill at 25-22.
In the match, Broadbent also finished with 18 digs to record her eighth double-double of the year, and Manwill recorded her 14th double-double with 17 digs. Fa'alogo also had a double-double with 34 assists, 14 digs and seven kills. Tusieseina had six kills, while Jones, a second-team all-conference selection, had 26 digs.
Earlier in the day, Manwill led the Wolverines with 16 kills, while Broadbent had eight kills and Robison had a season-high seven kills and three block assists in leading the Wolverines to the 25-10, 25-12, 25-8 victory over Chicago State to earn the berth into the semifinals.
