Oct. 24, 2007

VOLLEYBALL: Lutes Assured of at Least a Tie for NWC Crown

THIS WEEK: Pacific Lutheran hosts Whitman, Friday, 7 p.m.; PLU host Whitworth, Saturday, 5 p.m.

MAGIC NUMBER IS ONE: With four matches remaining in Northwest Conference play, including a pair of home contests this weekend, Pacific Lutheran is assured of at least a tie for the conference championship. The Lutes are unbeaten in 12 conference matches, and both Linfield and Puget Sound have four conference losses at this stage. One PLU win or a loss by both Puget Sound and Linfield would give the Lutes the outright NWC title. Pacific Lutheran has now won outright or shared the conference championship four times in the 12-year tenure of head coach Kevin Aoki. The Lutes won the outright conference crown in 1999 and in 2004 and shared the title with Linfield last year. To make it clearer, PLU has won three conference championships in the last four years.

Beth Hanna

Gina Di Maggio

Megan Kosel

WHITS COME TO TOWN: PLU has a chance to break its school-record 15 consecutive victory streak when it hosts Whitman at 7 p.m. Friday. The Lutes beat the Missionaries in three games the first time they played on Sept. 28 in Walla Walla, but Whitman currently shares fourth place in the conference standings with Pacific, both at 7-5. PLU plays its final regular season home match the following day against Whitworth Pirates. That match gets underway at 5 p.m., two hours earlier than the normal conference starting time, so that the Pirates can get on the road to Spokane earlier in the evening. PLU beat Whitworth, also in three games, the first time the teams played on Sept. 29 in Spokane.

NATIONAL RANKINGS: Pacific Lutheran continues its slow climb up the CSTV/AVCA Division III Coaches Top 25 Poll. The Lutes, 12-0 in the NWC, 19-3 overall and the winners of 15 straight matches, moved up one spot to No. 14 after defeated then No. 19-ranked Puget Sound and unranked George Fox last week.

RECORD-SETTING HOT: Few teams in NCAA Division III volleyball have been as hot as the Lutes, who last Friday against George Fox tied a school record with their 15th consecutive victory. The record was initially set by the 2004 PLU team that won the conference championship and advanced into the second round of the NCAA Division III playoffs. By the way, among the hot team in Division III are Wittenberg, undefeated at 29-0 and ranked No. 1 in the country, and Trinity (Texas), winner of 25 straight and ranked No. 3 in the country with a 28-1 record. Pacific Lutheran was the third of those 25 straight victims as the Lutes lost to the Tigers in five games, including 16-14 in the fifth game, at Trinity’s River City Classic back on Sept. 7.

LUTES RALLY TO BEAT PUGET SOUND: Pacific Lutheran came back from two games down to defeat host Puget Sound, 19-30, 25-30, 30-25, 30-28, 15-13, in a Conference match played last Wednesday night in Memorial Fieldhouse. The action was befitting a battle between nationally ranked opponents as Pacific Lutheran came into the contest with a 13-match winning streak and the No. 15 ranking in the national poll. The Loggers were ranked No. 19 in the national poll and had hoped to earn some retribution for a four-game loss to the Lutes in September. For two games, at least, it looked like the Loggers would indeed get their revenge. The Lutes rallied from a 7-3 deficit to win game three and keep the match going. There were 19 ties and eight lead changes before the Lutes nailed down the win in game four. Beth Hanna, who struggled early in the match, collected eight kills in the fourth game. PLU broke a 12-12 fifth-game tie on back-to-back Hanna kills to take a 14-12 lead, only to have Lindsey Denman answer with a Logger kill to make the score 14-13. Hanna finished out game five on a kill to give the Lutes the five-game victory Hanna and Matz both had big matches for the Lutes, contributing 25 and 24 kills, respectively. Setter Gina Di Maggio contributed 55 assists and libero Megan Kosel had an outstanding match with 36 of the Lutes' 110 digs. The Loggers hit .187 as a team compared to .119 for the Lutes.

LUTES SWEEP LOGGERS IN NWC PLAY FOUR STRAIGHT YEARS: Seniors Gina Di Maggio and Megan Kosel became the first Pacific Lutheran volleyball players to sweep the rival Puget Sound Loggers in four straight years of Northwest Conference matches. Since the 2004 season, the Lutes have won eight straight against the Loggers in conference play and they are 9-1 overall, including a pair of early season tournament matches. The Lutes' other seniors, Stacie Matz and Olivia Fagerberg, have played two and three seasons, respectively, for PLU.

GEORGE FOX SWEEPS MAKES IT 15 STRAIGHT: Pacific Lutheran tied a school record with its 15th consecutive victory when it defeated visiting George Fox, 30-15, 32-30, 30-23, in a conference match played last Friday night in Olson Auditorium. Not only was the record tied, the win also assured the Lutes of their second straight conference championship. Trailing 10-8 in the first game, the Lutes went on an 18-1 run to take a comfortable 26-11 lead. The Lutes got the serve and a point on one of Beth Hanna’s eight first-game kills, and Megan Kosel then served for nine straight points. Hanna had two kills and Kosel had two of her four first-game service aces during the run. The second game was much different, however, as the underdog Bruins battled the Lutes before finally succumbing. The Lutes actually took an 8-3 lead after a pair of Bruins attack errors, but George Fox ran off 13 of the next 18 points to go ahead, 16-13. The teams stayed within three points of each other, and the Lutes eventually tied it at 26-all on another service ace by Kosel. The Bruins responded by scoring the next three points on kills by Elizabeth Anderson, Sarah Crossfield and a PLU attack error. As they have throughout the season, however, the Lutes battled back to win the game. A George Fox service error opened the door, and the Lutes ran through it as Gina Di Maggio and Abby Mitchel each had a kill and Hanna added three more to finish the game. In the third game, George Fox took an 11-5 lead as Natalie Pickett had a pair of kills and Sarah Burkey two of her team-high service aces. The Lutes earned a side out and then ran off five straight points on Di Maggio’s serve to tie it at 11-11. From there, the Lutes gradually pulled away, and they eventually ended it on a kill by Hanna. The Lutes hit .250 as a team, including an impressive .444 in the first game. Hanna, the freshman outside hitter from Clackamas, Ore., had 16 of her match-high 19 kills in the first two games. Matz added 13 kills for PLU, which also got 42 assists from Di Maggio and 18 digs from Kosel.

JOYNT SIDELINED: The Lutes will be without one of their top players as sophomore Kelcy Joynt suffered a season-ending knee injury in the Willamette match. At the time of her injury, Joynt led the team in blocks with 47 and was third in kills with 203.

Kevin Aoki

LUTES ON RECORD PACE: There are a handful of Lutes closing in on school records this season. If the season were to end today freshman Beth Hanna would own the school record for kills per game with a 5.23 average. The current record is 5.01 held by recent PLU Athletic Hall of Fame inductee Rachelle Snowdon. Gina DiMaggio is on pace to break the assist per game record of 11.56 that she set her freshman year. DiMaggio is currently averaging 11.85 assists per game. In addition, the 2007 team is approaching the school-record 21 victories and .808 winning percentage established by the 2003 team.

ABOUT THE COACH: In his 12th season head coach Kevin Aoki is guiding the Lutes to one of the most successful seasons in school history. Aoki is also closing in on his 200th career victory with his overall record standing at 198-109, a .645 winning percentage. He has been named the Northwest Conference Coach of the Year three times (1999, 2004 and 2006) and in 2004 was selected as the AVCA West Region Coach of the Year.

- PLU -