Oct. 31, 2007

VOLLEYBALL: Champion Lutes Pursue Unbeaten NWC Record

THIS WEEK: Pacific Lutheran at Linfield, Friday, 7 p.m.; PLU at Pacific, Saturday, 7 p.m.

Gina Di Maggio

LUTES WIN ANOTHER NWC TITLE: Pacific Lutheran is the Northwest Conference champion for the third time in the last four seasons. The Lutes (21-3 overall, 14-0 NWC) assured themselves of the conference crown with a three-game victory over Whitman last Friday night in Olson Auditorium. PLU shared the conference title last year with Linfield and won the NWC crown outright back in 2004. In addition, the 1999 Lutes won the conference championship, giving head coach Kevin Aoki four titles in 12 seasons at his alma mater.

LUTES IN OREGON: PLU hopes to continue its hot play when it treks to Oregon, and closes out its regular season, with a Friday night match at Linfield and a Saturday night contest at Pacific. If the Lutes beat Linfield and Pacific, they would become the first team since Puget Sound in 2000 to go unbeaten in Northwest Conference matches. Four teams – PLU in 2004, Whitworth in 2005 and 2002 and George Fox in 1998 – have finished the conference season with 15-1 records. PLU defeated both schools in three games in Olson Auditorium back in early October. The Lutes beat nemesis Linfield, 30-25, 31-29, 30-25, and followed that up one night later against Pacific, 30-24, 30-26, 30-18.

THE WINS – AND RECORDS – JUST KEEP ON COMING: The Lutes broke the school record with their 16th and 17th consecutive victories last weekend against Whitman and Whitworth. The former record for consecutive wins in a season was 15 and came during the 2004 season. The 2007 team has compiled a 21-3 record to this point, tying the school record for victories in a season. This year’s team has two more regular season matches this weekend, plus a trip to the NCAA regionals, to set a new PLU volleyball standard for victories in a season.

CAL STATE-EAST BAY GETS REGIONAL NOD: PLU had hoped to host the NCAA regional tournament scheduled for Nov. 8-10, but the NCAA site selection committee chose instead to give the tournament to Cal State-East Bay in Hayward, Calif. Though there is not guarantee that the Lutes will be sent to Hayward, you can pretty much count on that happening. Regional tournament participants and seeding will be announced on Sunday evening, Nov. 4.

Beth Hanna

LUTES HOLD AT NO. 14: For the second straight week, PLU is ranked No. 14 in the CSTV/AVCA Division III top 25 national poll. Other than a couple of teams switching places, there was virtually no movement among the top 16 teams in the poll. The Lutes, by the way, are ranked No. 1 in the West Region.

WHITMAN SWEEP: A trio of seniors played a big part in the Lutes’ 31-29, 30-21, 30-22 win over Whitman on Friday. Stacie Matz finished the match with 15 kills and a .289 attack percentage, Gina Di Maggio spread the ball around and ended up with a match-high 40 assists, and Megan Kosel led both teams with 20 digs. Beth Hanna led the Lutes with 17 kills and a .342 attack percentage in support of Matz’s outstanding performance, and as a team the Lutes hit a solid .240 for the match. Rosa Brey had a big night for the Missionaries with a team-high 14 kills while also adding five solo blocks and two block assists.

LUTES STUMBLE, THEN BEAT WHITWORTH: Pacific Lutheran seniors Megan Kosel, Olivia Fagerberg, Stacie Matz and Gina Di Maggio, all playing their final home contest in Olson Auditorium, were honored before the Lutes’ final home match on Saturday. Once play began, however, it was Whitworth that came out with a vengeance. The Pirates used a pair of four-point runs to turn a 16-13 deficit into a 21-17 advantage, and they went on to take a 30-27 win in the first game. Pacific Lutheran, which lost a game for only the sixth time since Sept. 8, roared back to sweep the final three games, 30-23, 30-13, 30-19. Stacie Matz collected six kills and Anella Olbertz added four more to lead the Lutes in the second game. The third and fourth games held little of the drama of the first two games as the Lutes really found their offensive stride. After hitting .161 as a team in the first game and .271 in the second game, they hit .452 in the third and .351 in the fourth. Beth Hanna had a huge match with 26 kills and only one error for a .455 attack percentage. Matz was impressive as well with 20 kills and a .263 attack percentage, and she led the Lutes with 19 digs. Gina Di Maggio finished the night with 51 assists, and she was one of five PLU players to record double-digits in digs.

SEVERAL 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 5.30 average and for hitting percentage at .299. The current record for kills per game 5.01 set by Rachelle Snowdon in 1995, and the record for attack percentage is .296 set by Amie Moudry in 1996. 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 11.95 assists per game. Depending on the number of matches left in the season, at least two other records are in jeopardy. Hanna has 435 kills and is approaching Snowdon’s single-season record of 486 set in 1993. One that is a little farther out there is Kim Baldwin’s career assists record of 4,206. Di Maggio currently has 3,993 career assists, and at her current average of almost 12 assists per game would have to play 18 more games – a minimum of four matches – to have a chance to eclipse that record.

Kevin Aoki

AOKI WINS NO. 200: In his 12th season head coach Kevin Aoki is guiding the Lutes to one of the most successful seasons in school history. Aoki achieved his 200th coaching win at PLU and is now 200-109, a .647 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.

JOYNT HAS SURGERY: The Lutes will be without one of their top players as sophomore middle blocker Kelcy Joynt. Her surgery for a season-ending knee injury was scheduled for today, Oct. 31. At the time of her injury, Joynt led the team in blocks with 47 and was third in kills with 203.

- PLU -