The Lady Seasiders advanced to the second round of the NCAA West Regional tournament falling to conference rival Dixie State (25-19, 25-16, 15-25, 25-19). The Lady Seasiders won the previous day against Central Washington University but were unable to rally against Dixie State. In the first round, Stella Chen, Noel Wolman, and Ariel Hsu provided an offensive spark with 27, 18 and 13 kills respectively. With 27 kills ,Chen becomes the school’s all-time leader with 1,789 kills during her collegiate career. After losing the first set 19-25, BYUH came back with renewed fire starting with a 5-2 lead and building from there. Freshman Sinamoni Tonga had three consecutive kills and a kill from Wolman gave the Lady Seasiders a 13-6 lead. BYUH was able to extend its 20-13 with strong defense from junior Kalistina Takau and kills from Chen and Wolman. The Lady Seasiders won the set 25-17.Wolman attributed the turnaround in the second game to a positive attitude and having fun. “We knew we had to play like it was our last and we needed to have fun. That was the difference,” said Wolman. The Lady Seasiders carried their momentum the momentum the rest of the way winning the match (19-25, 25-17, 25-17, 25-19).In the second round, the Lady Seasiders faced conference rival Dixie State. The two teams had played each other twice during the season with BYUH winning both matches. Dixie State came out strong and BYUH was unable to keep up. After dropping the first two sets, BYUH bounced back to take the third set 25-15.Dixie State responded in the fourth set grabbing an early 4-0 lead and killed several small runs by the Lady Seasiders. At 20-12 Kathleen Collette helped the Lady Seasiders climbed within three points, but BYUH was unable to stage the comeback losing the set and the match 25-19. On the BYUH athletics website, BYUH Head Coach Mona Ah-Hoy said, “It was a tough loss. We hoped to send the seniors off on a better note. Dixie State came ready to play tonight and disrupted what we wanted to do on our attack.”
Writer: Homer Wolman~Multimedia Journalist
