Nov. 30, 2007

Box Score

TOPEKA, Kan. - Coming into the season after losing four talented seniors from last year's National semifinalist team and featuring a roster of talented but young players, there were many people who expected the West Texas A&M volleyball team to be at least a year away from challenging for a National Championship. The 2007 Lady Buffs had other plans, though, as they took on one of the most difficult schedules in school history and earned the program's 10th Elite Eight appearance. The National title run came up just short on Friday as the No. 8 Lady Buffs fell to No. 2 Concordia-St. Paul in four games (30-17, 30-22, 29-31 and 30-19) during Final Four action at Lee Arena in Topeka, Kan.

The Lady Buffs conclude their 2007 season with an overall record of 36-8, marking the second straight and 14th overall season of 30 or more wins in program history. Concordia, meanwhile, improves to 35-4 and moves on to face the winner of the Western Washington/Washburn semifinal match for the 2007 NCAA-II National Championship.

Junior libero Sara Contreras was active on the defensive end, piling up a game-high 31 digs for the Lady Buffs in face of powerful hitting by the Golden Bears, who collected a .207 team hitting percentage for the match compared to only .071 for WT. Sophomore Melissa Harper led the way on offense for the Lady Buffs with nine kills in the match followed by classmate Natalie Johnson, who contributed seven to the cause, while setter Katie Rickwartz tossed up 33 assists.

For her efforts at the touranament, where she piled up a team-high 28 kills, Harper was selected to the NCAA Volleyball National Championship All-Tournament team.

"We definitely could have done a lot of things better today, but you have to give a lot of credit to Concorida because they exucuted some things to get us out of our comfort zone," said Rickwartz. "We are dissapointed in this loss, but overall we are really proud of the season we have had. We have talked a lot about speeding thigns up and taking this team to the next level. We have everybody coming back next year so that is very encouraging. This offseason we need to set our goals a little higher and work hard to have a great spring so we can come back next year ready to go."

The Golden Bears came out hot to start the match, taking the first game by the score of 30-17 as they collected 20 kills on 42 attacks for an impressive .310 hitting percentage. By contrast, the Lady Buffs had a rocky start in the match as they collected seven kills on 42 attacks, but were guilty of five errors for a .048 attack percentage in the game.

Game two again did not start the way the Lady Buffs envisioned as Concordia continued its roll and jumped out to a 9-1 advantage, forcing an early timeout by WT head coach Tony Graystone. Out of the break, a Concordia attack error followed by a block by Lauren Thedford and another Golden Bear error gave WT three straight points of of the timeout to cut the lead to 9-4. The Lady Buffs were able to hang tough, closing the gap to four points at 14-10 and again at 17-13. The 30-22 defeat in game two left the Lady Buffs in a two-game hole, but they would not give up as they came out fighting for the third game.

Game three saw the Lady Buffs take the court with more tenacity as they battled in the early portion of the game, achieving their first lead of the match at 5-4 on a Harper kill. After a 3-0 run by the Golden Bears left the game tied at 12-12, WT went on the offensive, taking seven of the next eight points and forcing a Concordia timeout with WT leading, 17-13. Out of the break, the Lady Buffs took the next two points to build their largest advantage of the day at 19-13. The Golden Bears did not fade, though, as they battled back to tie the game at 22-22 on a kill by Kate Bennett to prompt a Lady Buff timeout.

Jamie Lakatos delivered a kill out of the break and a subsequent Concordia error put the Lady Buffs back on top at 24-22, but again the Golden Bears rallied with three straight to retake the advantage at 26-25. The two teams battled to three ties in the next few points with Lakatos breaking the stalemate with a kill to give the Lady Buffs a 30-29 advantage followed by a Concordia error that clinched the third game for WT.

As they had in each of the first two games, the Lady Buffs fell behind early in the opening plays of game four, dropping seven of the first nine points to require an early timeout. The early deficit was too much to overcome for the Lady Buffs, though, as they were only able to cut the lead to five points at 12-7 before eventually falling in the game by the score of 30-19.

Despite Friday's loss, the future looks very bright for Lady Buff volleyball as they stand to return their entire team for the 2008 season after posting back-to-back Lone Star Conference Championships and Final Four appearances. Coming back for their senior season and expected to be the backbone of the `08 squad will be Contreras, Alyssa Bromwell and Kelly Culley, who have compiled a 97-22 record during their three seasons in the program.

Additionally, the Lady Buffs bring back LSC Offensive Player of the Year Laura Prinsen and honorable mention AVCA All-American Rickwartz in addition to talented All-LSC honorees Harper, Johnson and Thedford.