BELLINGHAM, Wash. – The No. 1 Coyotes fell behind after the first set, but came charging to advance to their second-straight West Regional Championship with a 3-1 win over Central Washington on the campus of Western Washington on Friday night.
Alexis Cardoza led in kills again with 26 and Sascha Dominique dominated the fourth set and ended with 11 kills. Mikaela Grove was fantastic throughout with 12 kills and Jayann DeHoog had 56 assists and 21 digs. Hannah Barrett added 18 digs and Leilia To'omalatai had 22.
The Yotes fell behind early in set one and never recovered, falling 17-25. In set two, the Yotes went on a 6-0 run, capped by a block from Jalyn Hayes and Grove to go ahead 12-6. Hayes sent another one back to make it 21-14 and staved off a mini CWU run before winning 25-18. The Coyotes built a 9-1 lead to start set three with two aces coming from DeHoog. That lead expanded to 16-5 with kills from Cardoza and Dominique. CWU came storming back to 24-23 with a rally along the way that featured Cardoza serving one from a sitting position and a back-row kill from Cardoza that was placed perfectly in the middle of the court to win 25-23. The Yotes fell behind early in set four, but not by much, and stayed close until tying at nine on a kill from Cardoza. They continued and jumped ahead 11-9 thanks to a back-row kill from Asia Clarke. An ace from Clarke and kill from Cardoza stretched it to 20-15. CSUSB held that edge thanks to a back-corner push from Cardoza and won 25-20.
"Game two we settled down and started to do what we do," head coach Kim Cherniss said. "We have gotten great contributions from throughout our lineup."
Hayes led the charge with six blocks as CSUSB led 9-7 in that category. The Yotes led 88-83 in digs and 62-50 in assists, hitting .233 compared to .178 for CWU. Clarke added 14 digs to be the fourth Coyote in double figures in digs.
CSUSB (28-2) moves on to face either Western Washington or Cal Poly Pomona at 7 pm tomorrow in the West Region Championship. Live links are available on csusbathletics.com.
