THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Pacific Lutheran ended its 2014 volleyball season on Friday as Colorado College defeated No. 2 seed PLU 3-1 in the opening round of the Division III regional tournament hosted by Cal Lutheran. The Lutes fell by scores of 18-25, 27-25, 23-25 and 19-25.
"Despite the loss, what an outstanding season," head coach Kevin Aoki said. "We will miss the seniors that have set the bar very high with three-consecutive conference championships and four regional tournament appearances. It has been a great 2014 journey."
PLU completed their season with a 21-5 overall record while the Tigers improved to 30-8, advancing to the semifinals. This was Pacific Lutheran's fourth-consecutive regional appearance and tenth overall.
"I'm just so proud of my teammates and the hard work that they all put in," junior Lucy Capron said. "To get to where we got to is an amazing success and I wouldn't trade it for anything."
The Lutes were led by Capron with 18 kills, while Kylai Cooley finished with 14. Samantha North guided her team with 42 assists and libero Amber Aguiar led with 29 digs. Capron added 13 digs and Cooley tallied 17 while North and Taylor Komagome also contributed double figures in digs. Defensively, Michaela Edgers contributed four of PLU's eight total blocks.
With her 10.71 assists per set average, North lands herself in the PLU record books with the fourth-best per set average in the program's history. Aguiar finished the 2014 season with 642 digs and a 7.13 per set average, landing first place in both categories for the best in PLU program history.
For Colorado College, Abbe Holtze led the Tigers with 21 kills, finishing with a .360 attack percentage. Rebecca Watson set up the offense with 33 assists while Sarah Barker added 15. Four different players tallied double digits for digs with Sophie Merrifield leading with 27. Kristen Liberty led with six total blocks.
The Lutes were held to a .148 team attack percentage while the Tigers hit .246. Colorado College finished with 18 total blocks in comparison to PLU's eight.
CC wasted no time in the first set, taking a quick 5-0 lead over the Lutes. PLU inched its way back to come within one point (14-15), but the Tigers took 10 of the final 14 to secure the 25-18 set victory.
Both teams came to battle in the second set, which featured 11 total ties and would require extra points to determine a winner. CC took the initial lead with a PLU five-point rally allowing the Lutes to push a 12-12 tie. The teams continued to battle back and forth and with the score at 25-all, Cooley and Edgers would produce two kills to take the 27-25 victory.
The Lutes drew the first point in the third set with the Tigers wasting no time commanding the lead. With the score 12-8 in CC's favor, both teams battled back and forth with no team producing anything more than two-point rallies. Down 22-24, a kill by Amy Wooten kept the Lutes in the game. CC answered with a kill by Holtze to take the 25-23 win.
In a make-or-break set for the Lutes, PLU took a 5-4 lead which was quickly followed by a five-point run at the hand of the Tigers to pull ahead 9-5. The Lutes responded with a rally of their own to even it up at nine apiece. Colorado College ultimately pulled ahead 21-15 with PLU fighting to get within two points (19-21), but four-consecutive kills by the Tigers would secure their 25-19 set victory and a ticket to the semifinals.
"I think we battled throughout the match. We started off a little slow and it seemed like all four sets were battling, battling, battling," Aoki said. "I thought the crucial set was probably set number three where we were right there and just couldn't finish it out."
