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Weekly Women's Volleyball Release: 12/02
Colorado State and Utah headed to NCAA Tournament.
Dec. 2, 2002
Complete Release in PDF Format
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The Mountain West sent two teams, Colorado State and Utah, to this year's NCAA Tournament. The MWC sent three teams in 1999 and 2000, and sent a league record four teams to last year's tournament. Each of the past three years, the MWC has had two teams advance to the Sweet 16 (1999, 2000-BYU, Colorado State; 2001-Colorado State, Utah). In three years, the MWC has an overall NCAA Tournament record of 14-10, including a 6-3 mark for Colorado State and a 4-3 mark for Utah. QUICK HITS (Dec. 2) Air Force -- The Falcons finished the season at 8-22 after falling to Colorado State in three games at the Mountain West Conference Volleyball Championship. Sophomore Tiffany Bishop recorded eight kills and a .353 hitting percentage in the match to lead the Falcons. Junior Delavane Diaz recorded a match-high 24 attempts and now has 2,773 in her career, which ranks second all-time in the Mountain West Conference behind former Colorado State All-American Courtney Cox. The Falcons eight wins equaled the win total of the past two seasons combined and the two conference victories snapped a two-year drought for MWC wins. BYU -- BYU closed out the year with losses to No. 12 Arizona and No. 2 Hawai`i last week at Smith Fieldhouse. The Cougars suffered their first-ever losing season, but 10 of BYU's 23 opponents this season qualified for the NCAA Tournament. Junior Karina Puikkonen ended the season with 4,034 career assists, which ranks fifth all-time at BYU and second on the MWC career assist list. BYU was one victory away from its 13th straight trip to the NCAA Tournament. After becoming the first No. 4 seed to advance to the MWC Tournament finals, the Cougars fell short as Utah swept BYU to win the championship and the MWC automatic bid. BYU will miss the NCAA Tournament for only the second time in 22 years. Colorado State -- The Rams will make their eighth straight NCAA Tournament appearance when they travel to Honolulu to battle Washington in the first round. CSU meets a Pac 10 team for the first time this season by playing the Huskies. The Rams are 3-1 all-time vs. the Pac 10 since joining the MWC, falling only to eventual national champion Stanford in 2001. CSU is 13-13 in 13 NCAA appearances, but has advanced to the Sweet 16 each of the past three years. The Rams enter the NCAA Tournament with a 22-9 record, but they posted a 13-3 record down the stretch. New Mexico -- The Lobos wrapped up the 2002 season with a 2-1 record at the Albuturkey Tournament last week. UNM defeated Butler and Rice to advance to the tournament championship vs. No. 21 UCLA before falling in three games to the Bruins. Junior Anna Reines and senior Vanessa Shields earned all-tournament team honors. Reines averaged 4.27 kills per game in three matches at the tournament and recorded 20 vs. Butler--the sixth time this year she reached 20 kills in a match. Shields hit .407 and recorded her 11th double-double of the season with 14 kills and 12 digs vs. the Owls. San Diego State -- The Aztecs closed out the year with their highest win total since 1996 at 22-12. SDSU defeated UC Riverside last week in three games as Zlatina Anguelova recorded her 14th double-double of the year with 12 kills and 10 digs. Aspen McPartland notched a match-high 15 kills and nine digs. McPartland set the MWC junior season dig record with 391, while teammate Robyn Gregg holds the MWC sophomore (76 in 2001) and junior (61 in 2002) season records for aces. UNLV -- The Rebels posted a 1-1 record in the UNLV/Hard Rock Thanksgiving Classic and finished the year with an 11-20 mark. UNLV dropped a four-game decision to No. 11 Washington State, but rebounded for a three-game sweep over NCAA Tournament team Oral Roberts in the consolation match. Leiana Oswald totaled 13 kills and hit .324 vs. Oral Roberts and notched a double-double vs. the Cougars with 18 kills and 13 digs. Blair Wilkes, this week's MWC Player of the Week, had 16 kills and a .433 hitting percentage vs. Washington State and recorded 11 kills and eight blocks in the win over ORU. Wilkes and Oswald earned all-tournament team honors. Utah -- Utah enters the NCAA Tournament having won 11 of its last 13 matches with the only setbacks to Colorado State and No. 2 Hawai`i. The Utes cruised to their second straight MWC Championship to earn the MWC automatic bid. Last week, Utah upset No. 12 Arizona in four games. Sabine Schulze recorded her fifth double-double of the season with 11 kills and 11 digs vs. the Wildcats. Sylva Strzinková totaled 12 kills and just one hitting error vs. Arizona and was the only Ute in double figure kills (10) vs. No. 2 Hawai`i. Kim Turner totaled 14 kills and seven blocks in the win over Arizona and currently ranks fourth on the MWC all-time kills list with 1,114. Turner is also third all-time for MWC blocks with 495. Wyoming -- The Cowgirls lost to No. 3 seed and eventual MWC Tournament champion Utah in three games and closed out the year with a 20-11 record. Junior Michele Rauter recorded a match-high 14 kills to go with 10 digs, marking her league-leading 19th double-double of the season. Rauter is one of only five MWC student-athletes to top 1,000 career kills and currently ranks fifth with 1,034. Rauter also moved into second place on the MWC all-time digs list with 837, trailing only Utah's Alisa Geddes (974). Head coach Jim Barnes became the third Wyoming coach to lead the Cowgirls to 20 wins in his inaugural season (Jim Stone, 1979; Gerry Gregory, 1983). GRAND ATTENDANCE BYU became the third MWC team to top 2,000 fans for a single match this season after totaling 2,194 at Smith Fieldhouse for the Utah match. Wyoming reached 2,231 at Arena Auditorium for the Colorado State match Oct. 25, while CSU topped 2,000 twice this season (vs. Long Beach State Sept. 5 and vs. Utah Oct. 19). Five of the eight MWC teams reached the 1,000-mark for attendance in a single match this year. Colorado State (19) and Wyoming (23) are ranked in the nation's top 25 for attendance this season. 20 WIN SEASONS
This year, for the first time in league history, four teams reached 20 wins. Utah notched its seventh straight 20-win campaign, while Wyoming reached 20 wins for the first time since 1989. San Diego State reached its first 20-win campaign since 1996, and Colorado State posted 20 wins for the eighth straight season. BYU, Colorado State and Utah notched 20 victories each of the first three years in the MWC and qualified for NCAA Tournament play.
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