Albany State, NC Central and West Va State all eliminated in Volleyball Playoffs
November 10, 2006
All three HBCUs went down to defeat in the first round of the NCAA Division II Volleyball Playoffs
Truman State 3, Albany State 0
 The top-ranked team in the country dominated Albany State (Ga.) Thursday night in Pershing Arena, winning the match by a score of 30-14, 30-14 and 30-22.
Rooted on by the home crowd, most of Truman players got an opportunity to play at some point during the evening, thus giving younger players their first chance at playing in NCAA tournament action.
Lauren Graybeal led the Bulldogs with 12 total kills for the night and an impressive .647 hitting average. Susie Lesher also had a good night at the net, accumulating 10 kills. Melissa Keck and Kelsey Wackerman both had six kills each.
Three different players shared the position of setter for the Bulldogs. Wackerman, Christine Wagener and Amanda Holliday each had double digit assists. Holliday also grabbed an impressive dig during the third game of the night.
The Bulldogs had a lot of success serving throughout the evening, collecting a total of 11 aces. They also had eight blocks on the night.
Albany State had a hard time finding any success at the net against the Bulldogs. The team had only a .037 hitting percentage. Alona Brinson and Rachell Anderson led the Lady Rams with seven kills a piece.
The team showed positive moments during the third game of the night when Rachell Anderson and Charity Glover made several blocks against Truman attacks.
Carleeza Garrett had 20 assists and three digs for the Lady Rams.
Loch Haven 3, NC Central 1
LOCK HAVEN, PA North Carolina Central University continuously battled with its back against the wall, but the Eagles’ valiant efforts fell short as they ended their historical season with a 3-1 (30-16, 27-30, 30-28, 33-31) loss to the host and No. 1-seed Lock Haven University Thursday night in the first round of the NCAA Division II Volleyball Regionals.
NCCU (32-13) was charged by junior outside hitter Shari Matthews with a match-high 33 kills, improving her NCAA Division II single-season record to 974 kills. She also added 12 digs and seven blocks.
NCCU junior Kai Wright played her best match of the season with 11 kills and a match-high 19 digs, while junior middle hitter Rachel Walters contributed eight kills and seven blocks.
Playing in the final match of her Eagle career, NCCU's single-season assist leader, Latoya Tate recorded a match-high 48 assists and amassed 10 digs.
The match brings to an end one of the best seasons in NCCU volleyball history. This season, NCCU extended its CIAA winning streak to 36 straight contests and won two tournaments in which the Eagles was the lone NCAA Division II representative (the Hampton University Lady Pirate Invitational and the Winston-Salem State Lady Rams Invitational).
The 32 wins by NCCU were the most in school history and head coach Georgette Crawford-Crooks' squad leaves the CIAA as winners of the past three conference championships.
Hillsdale 3, West Virginia State 0
Add another piece of history to the growing mosaic that is the 2006 Hillsdale College volleyball season.
The Chargers won their first-ever NCAA Division II regional match in a 3-0 win over West Virginia State Thursday evening at Jesse Philips Arena. Hillsdale is now 29-1 on the season and will face Ashland in the second of Friday's two regional semifinal matches, around 7:30 p.m. No. 7 Grand Valley faces No. 14 SIU-Edwardsville at 5 p.m. in the other semifinal.
The Chargers were coming off their first loss of the season, suffered last Friday at the hands of the Eagles, in the GLIAC Semifinals. Now, the two teams will meet again in a winner-take-all matchup. The victor moves onto Saturday's regional final, while the loser of the match will have its season ended.
There would be no season-ending matches for the Chargers on Thursday, as they pleased the huge home crowd by blitzing the Yellow Jackets early and often. Hillsdale won the three games by scores of 30-17, 30-26 and 30-17. The Chargers defeated West Virginia State earlier in the season, by a similar score.
Hillsdale came out clicking on offense in the first game, hitting .500 as a team while easing its way to a 13-point win. Four players had four or more kills in the game, which symbolized the balance on offense Hillsdale had all night.
Game two was a tougher nut to crack for Hillsdale, as West Virginia State played a superior defensive game and made the Chargers work hard for every point. Hillsdale led 29-23, but saw the Yellow Jackets score three straight points while up against game point before falling to the Chargers.
Game three was more like a repeat of game one, as Hillsdale hit .471 as a team and held West Virginia State to a match-low .087 hitting percentage for the game.
Four players had between eight and 11 kills for the Chargers, led by 11 from senior Taryn Rudland. Seniors Becky Grzegorski and Katherine Jones had 10 apiece, while junior Melissa Bartlett scored eight kills. Sophomore Stephanie Booms racked up 46 assists, and junior Megan Howard led the team with 13 digs. Stephanie Harwood and Kerri Kraus each had 10 kills for West Virginia State.
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