Friday, December 3, 2021

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – For the fifth time in the last six NCAA West Regional tournaments, Western Washington is on its way to the final.

The No. 2 seeded Vikings picked up its 18th consecutive victory by beating GNAC rival and No. 6 seeded Central Washington for the second time this season in a great battle, capturing the momentum over the final two sets to take a four-set victory in the semifinals of the regional tournament at Coussoulis Arena.

The teams traded the first two sets of the match and Central Washington appeared on its way to winning the third set before the Vikings overcame a seven-point deficit late to capture a 28-26 victory. That momentum carried into the fourth set, hitting a blistering .552 en route to a 10-point win.

Western Washington finished the night with a .377 hitting percentage and saw five players hit .400 or better individually. Junior outside hitter Gabby Gunterman led the Vikings with 16 kills, nine digs and a .419 hitting percentage.

Sophomore outside hitter Calley Heilborn finished with 13 kills, six digs and five blocks. Sophomore middle blocker Olivia Fairchild added 12 kills, four blocks and a .524 hitting percentage and junior middle blocker Chloe Roetcisoender finished with 10 kills, eight blocks and a .562 hitting percentage.

Sophomore outside hitter Ashley Kaufman led Central Washington with 19 kills, six digs and a .500 hitting percentage. Sophomore setter/outside hitter Tia Andaya added nine kills, 21 assists and two digs while freshman libero Hannah Stires finished with 14 digs.

With the win, Western Washington (25-4) will face either Cal State San Bernardino or Cal State LA in the regional final on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. It marks the fifth time since 2015 that WWU has appeared in the final with the Vikings compiling a 2-2 record in the previous four matches. Central Washington finishes the season with a 17-9 record.

The two rivals engaged in a close first set that saw neither team by more than four points. The Vikings took a 9-5 lead on a Heilborn kill but the Wildcats came back to take the 10-8 lead on one of Kaufman’s five kills in the set. Western came back to tie it at 12-12 and the teams battled through ties at 17-17 and 18-18 before the Vikings took the lead for good on a Fairchild kill. Junior outside hitter Tess Biscup closed the set with a kill for the 25-21 win.

Western Washington opened with the second set lead, but runs of four points and three points put Central Washington ahead 12-8. The CWU lead was 16-14 when a block by freshman Emma Daoud-Hebert sparked another five-point run that made it a 21-14 advantage. Kaufman and Andaya had four kills each as the Wildcats maintained no less than a four-point advantage the rest of the way.

Most of the third set belonged to the Wildcats, allowing WWU just two points off its own serve in the first 30 rallies of the frame. The score was 16-15 when Leanna Shymanski’s kill sparked a seven-point run that ended on Kylie Honrud that put the Wildcats in apparent control at 22-15.

Western Washington had other plans. Fairchild’s third kill of the set wrestled control away from CWU and started what proved to be a momentum-building six-point run. Roetcisoender had three blocks in the run that brought the Vikings within 24-23. The teams traded service errors before a CWU attack error made it a 24-24 set and sent it into extra points. The score was tied two more times before a bad set and an attack error won it for the Vikings.

In the fourth set, Western Washington could do no wrong with a .552 hitting percentage with 17 kills and just one error in 29 total attempts. The Vikings never trailed in the frame, building a 13-7 lead on a block by Fairchild and Heilborn before a four-point run paced by a kill and block by Roetcisoender stretched the lead to 10. The match ended, fittingly, on a block by Fairchild and Heilborn.