SIOUX CITY, Iowa - Whittany Radcliffe led the way with 16 kills with just one hitting error, as No. 5 ranked Azusa Pacific defeated The College of Idaho 25-17, 21-25, 26-24, 25-19 in the final Pool E match at the 2009 NAIA Volleyball National Championships inside the Tyson Events Center.
With the win, the Cougars (29-8) claim the Pool title for the second-straight year and ended The C of I’s 13-match win streak.
APU will meet Indiana Tech in the opening round of bracket play, while the Lady Yotes (26-3) will meet the University of Texas at Brownsville in another bracket play match-up.
The Cougars charged out to an 11-5 lead in the opening set and were never threatened, as Golden State Athletic Conference Player of the Year, Jill Baker, had five kills in the frame. Set 2 saw the Coyotes break a 5-5 tie with 6-1 run, including back-to-back combo-blocks from Kristin Henning and Jessie Link on Baker kill attempts, with APU never getting closer than four points the rest of the set.
Set 3 was a doozy, as the teams combined for eleven ties, before the Yotes got a pair of Ciciley Fox kills to build a 17-13 lead, with The C of I grabbing a 24-22 edge on a Link spike. However, APU did not quit, getting a Baker kill, a Yote hitting error, and back-to-back blocks from Ariel Beetstra and Krista Brenner to notch four-straight points to take a two sets to one edge.
The finale saw the Cougars use a 7-1 push to break open a 10-9 score and run away to the victory.
Baker had 15 kills and 21 digs, with Amy Alkazin adding ten kills in the win for APU. Setter Raechel Jones recorded a team-high 31 assists, with Ariel Beetstra logged eight kills and a team-high six blocks.
Fox led the Lady Yotes with 15 kills and ten digs, with Naomi Reimer chipping in with 13 kills, 25 assists, and nine digs. Link had nine kills and five blocks, with Kathryn Ely recording nine kills. The downfall for The C of I was in the middle, as Henning and Marcella Hernandez managed just four kills on 39 swings, with 12 hitting errors.
Both the APU-Indiana Tech and C of I-Texas at Brownsville matches will be at 10 a.m. (CT), with the second set of opening round matches (Lee vs. Taylor and Georgetown vs. Point Loma Nazarene) scheduled for 12:45 p.m. (CT). With a win, the Lady Yotes would meet top-seeded and defending national champion Fresno Pacific in the national quarterfinals at 5:45 p.m. (CT)