ORANGE, Calif.— Cal Lutheran women's volleyball won the last five games of the regular season, four of which were sweeps, as the Regals grabbed the No. 3 spot in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament.
CLU (17-10) travels to No. 2 Chapman (22-4) for a semifinal match on Thursday with first serve set for 7 p.m. There is live video and live stats.
The Regals and Panthers split the season series as each team won at home. On Oct. 5, Chapman narrowly defeated Cal Lutheran 3-2. The Regals got their revenge three weeks later, Oct. 25, as they swept the Panthers at home.
The winner of the game will take on No. 1 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps or No. 4 La Verne. The team with the highest remaining seed will host the championship on Saturday.
With Head Coach Kellee Rosel at the helm, the Regals have advanced to the postseason every year since its inception in 2009 and have five SCIAC Tournament championships. CLU leads the league with 11 SCIAC Tournament appearances.
First Team All-SCIAC honoree Maci Haddad and Second Team members Morgan Given and Carly Rose Howard lead the way for the Regals. Haddad swats down a team-high 2.39 kills per set and Given adds 1.99. Howard has been tremendous defensively and is eighth in the SCIAC with 4.32 digs per set.
More notables for the Regals include Kristine Fimlaid, Sarah Hein, Jenna Jones, Jennifer Kent, Samantha Landrum and Jojo MacArthur.
MacArthur and Hein have the second and third most kills per set this season with 2.28 and 2.06, respectively. Both have also added just over 20 aces.
The offense has continued to move through Kent and Jones at the setter position. Kent has recorded eight double-doubles in assists and digs and has added 33 aces and 13 blocks. Jones has impressed with 4.02 assists per set to go along with a team-high 34 aces, 129 digs and 23 kills.
Coming on late this year has been Landrum and Fimlaid. Landrum is coming off a SCIAC Offensive Athlete of the Week performance as she tallied 37 kills, while hitting .447, and added 12 blocks. Fimlaid has stepped in due to teammate injuries and taken advantage of the situation. She has been solid in the middle over the past five games.
The winner of the tournament gets an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament. The Regionals start Friday with locations and times to be determined.
SCIAC: Tournament Central
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Release by Ryan Jorgenson, Sports Information Director
