Chrissy Zehrbach
Editor in Chief
photography by Adam Omernik and German Jimenez
It was with mixed emotions that the University of La Verne women’s volleyball team accepted its third place trophy at the NCAA Division III Final Four Saturday at the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester, Minn.
The Leopards had traveled to the Land of 10,000 Lakes looking for a national championship and instead found themselves in a situation which many referred to as déjà vu.
After being knocked down by Washington University of Missouri, 3-0 (30-25, 30-15, 30-25), in the tournament’s opening game for the second year in a row, ULV defeated New York University, 3-1 (30-25, 28-30, 30-28, 30-23), the following night, taking it’s second-consecutive third-place finish.
The four best teams in the nation faced off for a chance at a national title. Three of which – La Verne, NYU and Wash U – made an appearance at the Supertents for last season’s finals. The latter, a powerful team that expects to be in the finals each year, was looking for a consecutive title, the others were looking to improve upon last year’s finish.
Added into the mix this year was Juniata College, making its 24th appearance in the championships, and still searching for a national title.
The 24th time proved to be the charm for Juniata as the Eagles took their first-ever national title with a 3-0 (30-27, 30-27, 30-28) win over defending champion Washington Saturday night.
Despite the outcome, the Leopards (33-4) took pride knowing they were still among the top teams in the country – one of the few playing the last weekend of the season.
“As much as we’d love to be No. 1, you know, I don’t see anything wrong with being No. 3. Still top four teams in the nation – that’s not bad at all,” outside hitter Jennifer Stout said.
“There are 420 teams out there who would love to be sitting here right now,” ULV head coach Don Flora said.
ULV entered the third-place match after a disappointing loss the day prior in the semifinals, taking on the 2003 runner-up NYU, who had been defeated by Juniata, 3-0 (30-21, 30-25, 30-19), in the semifinal round.
La Verne came into the game looking like a completely different team than had faced Washington. The Leopards established a block early, found the holes on the court and overall had a lot more energy.
“We just come out with even more intensity, even more fire and we bring our game – we show them La Verne volleyball. We didn’t show it tonight, but you know what we’re gonna bring it tomorrow,” Stout said following the loss to Wash U. “And that’s all we can do is just play our best, play with no regrets and just come out on fire. I mean forget the loss. Everybody hates losing, but you know what we’re gonna come out and get a win tomorrow.”
“We didn’t have a lot of fun yesterday and I think that made a big difference and there were more smiles and more cheering and just more excitement overall,” Schary said. “A new day a new game, and seniors this was all our last match. Nothing to lose, win or lose, so we might as well go out with a victory.”
It was in game two that the Violets picked up their game and gave ULV its biggest challenge in the match. The score was tied a total of 15 times with six lead changes – a big change from the first game which saw eight ties and five lead changes.
“For a consolation game this was a heck of a game to watch,” NYU head coach Ed Caesar said.
With the score 29-28 in favor of the Violets, ULV could not get the ball over the net following a tough rally, giving NYU its only game in the match.
The Leopards outhit NYU in all games except the second, bringing the team’s match average down. ULV finished the match hitting .253 while NYU hit .269.
Despite losing the second game, the team said it never worried about the match.
“When you worry you start thinking of too many things and you’re not playing volleyball. So you can’t worry about it,” Stout said.
ULV picked up the pace in the third and fourth games, never allowing the Violets to hold a lead in either.
Outside hitter Amy Kratochvil lead the Leopards in kills with 16, followed by middle blocker Tricia Schary (12) and opposite Adele Jones (10). Middle blocker Mandy Sedia also chipped in with nine.
Defensively the Leopards benefited from setter Amanda Thomas’ and libero Lauren Friestad’s 14 digs apiece. Leslie Flores also had 11 and Kratochvil recorded nine.
“La Verne had a pretty stingy defense tonight when they needed it and I think that was the big difference in the game,” Caesar said.
In the match, six players contributed to 11 service aces and the team combined for a team total of nine blocks, holding their opponents to four.
“They have a big front row, the block’s there every time – they had a lot of blocks on us, and the defense is everywhere,” NYU’s Elena Drinka said. “We played a lot of teams this year where it’s a kill every time and we just weren’t getting that today.”
A match-high in kills was recorded by Drinka, who put away 23 balls on the Leopards’ court, despite playing with a torn abdominal muscle.
“Drinka’s obviously an All-American for a reason, so they set (her) a ton of balls. She’s got a good arm and good location,” Flora said.
Jennifer Gardikas and Natasha Boysaw also contributed to the Violets’ fight with 15 and 10 kills, respectively.
The Violets had four players tallying double digits in digs. NYU put up a tough fight, picking up a lot of La Verne balls and swinging with all they had, but made many errors as well.
“It seemed like we got out of the gates a little slow in almost every game,” Caesar said. “Once you make a deficit that big its hard to fight back and it seemed like it carried over to the next game.”
Ending the season on a win was a high point, especially for the Leopards’ six seniors.
“I think we were disappointed with yesterday but we wanted to step up today and prove that we are a good team,” Jones said.
“I think we knew what we needed to do to finish the way we set our goals for the year … and to finish our season the way that we would have liked to,” outside hitter Sara Lupu said.
NYU took its fourth-place finish with a grain of salt.
“The final four is an accomplishment for any team and for us to get here two years in a row has been a great honor,” Gardikas said.
“We had a great season last year and this year too, so to me it’s not a step back. It was a fun weekend but definitely not the best,” Drinka said.
“As a program we haven’t really reached a pinnacle yet as a championship but…we’ve taken a big step forward for the program and we’re starting to get the program the way we want,” Caesar said. “We’re hoping to get up to this elite group pretty much of La Verne, Wash U and Juniata. These teams have been the top teams since its been around. So now that we’ve been here a couple times and we’re starting to see what it takes to be a winning program.”
In ULV’s first-round match against Washington, the Leopards marched onto the court knowing what was on the line. But something was missing from their game – a lack of focus and energy.
“We didn’t get out tonight and play La Verne volleyball, and they totally took advantage of that,” Kratochvil said. “They came out on top and we just didn’t play our game so they were all over us.”
“Bottom line they came out and they out dug us, out blocked us, out swung us. They just did everything better than we did and that’s why the outcome came out like it did,” Schary said.
It was the Bears’ energy from the beginning that guided them through the match and kept their spirits high. Unfortunately, La Verne did not match that energy on the court.
“The match didn’t start when it was 0:00 on the clock. the match started with the energy that you saw during our warm ups, when our players were getting mentally prepared to play the match,” Washington head coach Rich Luenemann said.
In the match Wash U consistently found the holes in La Verne’s defense, successfully tipping the ball past the blockers to the empty court behind them.
“We trained for the tip for the last week since the quarterfinals and we didn’t pick it up,” Kratochvil said. “I don’t know if it was that we couldn’t read it or what was going on, but the ball dropped in that same spot every time.”
Flores covered the floor for ULV, picking up 11 digs.
“They were probably the strongest hitting team I think we’ve ever faced,” Flores said.
In game two came hope that from the other side of the net there would be a new side of the Leopards. But in a disappointing second game ULV was reduced to a negative -.111 hitting percentage. Five players ended the match with negative percentages.
“We never got our offensive groove where we were able to run our hitters the way we should have,” Schary said.
It appeared the Leopards needed some time to warm up in the chilly state as the first sign of real intensity came in game three. ULV took an early 6-1 lead, but the Bears tied it up at 12, trading points until a 15 point tie. From there Washington went on an 8-1 run to make the score 23-16. Only seven points away from victory, the Bears let their lead slip as the Leopards stepped it up, but still took the game, 30-25.
Kratochvil posted a match-high 14 kills, but it was her opponents, not her teammates, who followed. Washington’s Megan Houck tallied 13 kills and Emilie Walk and Whitney Spencer had 12 each. Wash U also posted three player with double digits in digs, spearheaded by Colleen Winter who accumulated 19.
As a team ULV hit a low .048 with only 7.5 blocks while Wash had 13 blocks and a .282 hitting percentage.
With the win the Bears advanced to the championship game. Last season they won a Division III record eighth title.
Some admitted revenging last season’s loss was motivation in wanting to win the game, but it did not overcome them.
“I don’t think we looked back at last year at all,” Flores said. “We held our heads very high coming into this game and it didn’t matter what happened last season. This is a new season so we went out there and tried our best.”
The Leopards earned their spot among the final four by defeating Wittenberg University of Ohio Nov. 20 in the Supertents. Many had anticipated the match to be a stronger contest than it turned out to be. Getting to the quarterfinals, Wittenberg defeated Mt. St. Joseph’s, who handed La Verne one of its three losses during the regular season, 3-1, on Sept. 17.
But ULV took care of the Tigers in true Leopard fashion, maintaining an undefeated record on its home court this season. ULV took a decisive 3-0 (30-16, 30-25, 30-26) victory.
Accolades from the post-season journey to the Final Four included All-American selections in Kratochvil for first team and Schary for second team. Thomas and Sedia both received honorable mention nods. The same four players were also named All-West Region selections.
Back home in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, Kratochvil was voted SCIAC Player of the Year while teammates Jones, Schary and Thomas were first team choices. Stout and Sedia were second team selections.
Six seniors (Kratochvil, Jones, Stout, Thomas, Schary and Lupu) will be graduating from this season’s roster, forcing a turnover in ULV women’s volleyball.
“The six seniors are the best six players on our team and I hold them to very high standards and they’ve met every single one of them,” Flores said.
“I love where this program is right now,” Flora said. “We have a wonderful amount of athletic depth and people who have learned a lot from our six seniors. Our second team has made our starting team better. I think those girls will step up and fill some roles in ‘05.”
Flora said this class was the best senior class La Verne had ever had “by far in my era and I think by far in the history of La Verne volleyball and SCIAC and in the nation.”
“Three final fours and four conference championships and all that good stuff, but it’s way beyond that – it’s the leadership and the culture and they all bring something very different. They have established a culture and a belief and a level of excellence,” Flora said.
“We’re one of three programs to finish on the top ten the last five years. In the final rankings there’s only three of us – Juniata, Wash. U and La Verne – to finish in the top ten the last five seasons. So these outstanding women have set the standard for La Verne volleyball.”
Chrissy Zerhbach can be reached at sqweet@aol.com.
Chrissy Zehrbach
Adam Omernik
