Box Score

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The No. 20 Metro State volleyball team knocked off its third consecutive top-15 team, sweeping No. 15 Minnesota Duluth 25-23, 25-21, 25-18 on Friday in St. Paul, Minn., to advance to the NCAA Central Region championship.  The Roadrunners defeated No. 3 Nebraska-Kearney last Sunday to win the RMAC Tournament and knocked off No. 13 Southwest Minnesota State on Thursday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Metro State improved to 26-7 overall, while UMD finished its season at 23-9.  The win was the 13th in the past 14 matches for Metro State.

With the two wins to open the 2009 NCAA Tournament, this marks the most successful postseason in school history as the Roadrunners had never made it out of the second round of the NCAA Tournament until Friday's win.

The Roadrunners hit .278 (38-11-97) for the match on Friday, while holding Minnesota Duluth to just .088 (34-25-102).

For the second match in a row, it was Metro State's middles and right sides with the big offensive performances as the Bulldogs took Metro State's top offensive weapon Bri Morley (Parker, Colo./Cherokee Trail H.S.) out of the match, holding the RMAC's kills leader to just five and a hitting percentage of .040 (5-4-25).  But with Morley being marked, that left opportunities for middle blocker Julie Causseaux (Dumas, Texas/Dumas H.S.) and right side Lisa Jones (Pueblo, Colo./Pueblo East H.S.) as the two combined for 19 kills and .485 hitting percentage.

Jones had a match-high 11 kills and hit .529 (11-2-17), while adding a pair of aces.  Causseaux had eight kills, hit .438 (8-1-16) and had four total blocks, including two solos.

Emily Greenhalgh (Conifer, Colo./Conifer H.S.) added six kills and Gabe Curtis (Arvada, Colo./Ralston Valley H.S.) and Anna Mapes (Chaska, Minn./Chaska H.S.) each had four.  Curtis dished out 31 assists and had three aces.  Amy Watanabe (Littleton, Colo./Heritage H.S.) led the team with 13 digs, while Morley added eight and Curtis and Amanda Cook (Bellevue, Neb./Bellevue East H.S.) each had seven.

Metro State hit .353 (15-3-34) in the first set, but gave the Bulldogs seven points via service errors and serve-receive errors to take the set by just two points.  Metro State built a 16-11 lead, but allowed UMD back in it at 17-17.  Morley had a kill at 23-23 and then served the final point as the Roadrunners forced an attack error.

The Roadrunners got off to another hot start and led 9-4 in the first set.  UMD cut the lead to 20-18, but Curtis scored on a setter dump and then served as the Roadrunners scored three straight to lead 23-18.

Metro State led 5-1 in the third set.  Leading 12-10, the Roadrunners went on a 4-0 run to lead 16-10 as they had their best defensive set, holding the Bulldogs to just a .030 (10-9-33) hitting percentage.

Metro State will face No. 1 Concordia-St. Paul at 7 p.m. (CST) on Saturday for the Central Region championship and a trip to the NCAA quarterfinals.  The Roadrunners were swept by the Golden Bears earlier this season at the Colorado Premier Challenge on Sept. 5.  Metro State is 1-11 all-time against the AVCA top-ranked teams.

Postgame Quotes:

Head Coach Debbie Hendricks:
Opening statement: "Well I'm extremely proud of this team and our response to how we played yesterday, we did not ball control well yesterday and today our ball control was phenomenal. We came in with the outmost respect for Duluth after watching the way they played yesterday. We had hoped that they wouldn't play quite at the level that they did yesterday. I think we served very aggressively and I think we passed very well which allowed Gabe to run the offense. They (Duluth) have a phenomenal program and I have the outmost respect for Jim and everything they do over there. We are very happy to be in this position right now."

On energy and strong start: “Well part of it was that we knew after watching Duluth play yesterday they played with a great deal of energy. We knew that if we weren't able to match that we were going to be in big trouble on our side. In order to overcome the emotion of everything we made that a big point. I'm really proud of our team for doing that.”
On the altitude difference: “It obviously can't hurt. The one thing that we noticed was that the ball dropped a lot more, especially on the serves. I don't know if you noticed but yesterday there were a few balls that dropped short on us. Because there is a little bit of difference, when teams from here come up to our place they notice that the ball floats a little more.

Junior middle blocker Lisa Jones (Pueblo, Colo./Pueblo East H.S.):
On hitting with authority: “Honestly, she (setter Gabe Curtis (Arvada, Colo./Ralston Valley H.S.)) distributed the ball really well and I just happened to be put into great situations. It just happened to drop, its an amazing feeling (to perform well) but it is important that our team played together and won.

On hitting against a good blocking team: “Today during practice we worked on hitting shots off of big blocks. We probably worked 15 minutes on it. I think working on that today really helped. We were able to see the blocks coming and react to the situation.”

Senior setter Gabrielle Curtis:
On difference from their match yesterday: “I think yesterday like coach said we came out a little bit flat. We came out after watching them (Duluth) play yesterday that we needed to bring our “A” game, we knew that we had to step it up a level to match them."

On digging against a good serving team: “I think I always come out with a mind set to be aware of the ball. I was just really focused on that. Our ball control put me in great situations to help put the hitters in good situations.”