Leos take Regional Championship

photo by Jenna Campbell

Freshman Lauren Friestad (No. 8) of the University of La Verne women’s volleyball team faced off against Colorado College in the NCAA West Regional Semifinals Friday. The Leopards swept the Tigers, 3-0, advancing to play Cal State Hayward in the West Regional Championship.

by Chrissy Zehrbach
Sports Editor

As hosts of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III Regional Tournament, the University of La Verne women’s volleyball team won the regional championship in front of an energetic home crowd Saturday against its regional rival, Cal State Hayward.

As regional champions, the Leopards advance to a quarterfinal match tomorrow, facing University of Wisconsin, La Crosse in Wisconsin.

“It’s fun to be together and get to go on a road trip,” said head coach Don Flora. “The only bummer is we don’t have our fans behind us.”

The Leopard fan base packed the Supertents for each of ULV’s contests over the weekend. The crowd in the stands gave the Leopards energy to feed off and kept them going.
“The crowd’s electric. That’s a nice advantage for them,” said Hayward head coach, Jim Spagle.

The Leopards were ready early for the Hayward match. Their spirits were high as they laughed and fooled around. But once they stepped on the court, they had their game faces on; they were ready to play.

ULV was on fire in warm-ups and carried that intensity over into the match, taking the Pioneers in four games, 3-1 (30-27, 29-31, 30-26, 30-24).

The two teams were evenly matched on the court. Both proved they were the two teams who should be competing for the regional title. In the match, ULV’s hitting percentage was .189, only slightly above Hayward’s at .171.

Amy Kratochvil led the team with 22 kills and 29 digs in the match. Also collecting double digits in kills were Amy Smith (14), Adele Jones (12) and 2003 SCIAC Player of the Year Tricia Schary (10). Jen Stout recorded 24 digs in the match, Smith had 20, Lauren Friestad had 17 and Amanda Thomas had 16.

Strong individual performance came together for a strong team performance. As a team, ULV had 71 kills and 125 defensive digs.

“I’m honored to coach these girls,” Flora said. “They work their tails off every day. A win like that is a product of our training and commitment.”

Hayward, the No. 3 seed in the tournament, was the defending regional champion. The last time the Leopards defeated Hayward was in the 2001 West Regional Championship, a 3-2 victory.

Saturday’s match was the second between the two teams this season. Hayward defeated ULV, 3-2, on Sept. 26 at the Wild West Shootout in Hayward. A victory in the rematch had been a ULV goal ever since.

“They had a bunch of errors the first time we played them. They’ve cut down on that drastically,” Spagel said.

To advance to the regional championship game, ULV had defeated Colorado College, 3-0 (30-16, 30-14, 30-18), Friday night in just less than an hour.

“We beat them a lot quicker than we expected to. I thought they’d put up more of a fight,” Schary said.

Colorado had defeated Gallaudet University, 3-1 (26-10, 30-20, 30-16, 30-23), to get to the second round of the tournament.

Kratochvil, Smith and Schary each recorded 10 kills in the match against Colorado. Thomas and Friestad had 11 digs each.

“It was exactly what we were looking for in our first round game,” Flora said. “To play crisp, run our systems and have everybody contribute; we did all that and more.”

As a team the Leopards averaged a .245 hitting percentage, holding the Tigers to a negative -.038.
“ULV tonight was a tough team to defend,” Flora said.

The Leopards never let up during the entire match, and although the Tigers tried to keep up, they ultimately fell short.

“They didn’t know what hit them,” Flora said. “I don’t think they were expecting the environment – a lot of great fans – a lot of times that can hurt you at home, but we used it.”

As the No. 1 seed in the West region, ULV had a bye the first night. Hayward, however, had to play a game each night to make it to the championship round.

Thursday night Hayward defeated City College of New York, 3-0 (30-14, 30-21, 30-13), and Friday it defeated the No. 2 seed Linfield, 3-2 (30-23, 28-30, 30-25, 27-30, 15-8).

“I’m predicting right now La Verne will win the national title,” Spagle said.