Lady Jackets Sweep Heartland Crown (11/4/06)
Box Score
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Coach Matavao post game audio

BILLINGS, MT – The Montana State-Billings volleyball team hit on all cylinders Saturday night to capture its first-ever conference championship.  The Yellowjackets swept St. Mary’s University 30-20, 30-16, 30-23 in the Heartland Conference Championship Match held at Alterowitz Gymnasium.

The conference crown is accompanied by an automatic invitation to the NCAA Tournament.  The Jackets (25-4) will be one of eight teams invited to the NCAA Southwest Regional when the NCAA announces the tournament field at 8:00 p.m. MST on Sunday.  MSUB entered the week ranked tenth in the region, so the Jackets will likely be one of the bottom four seeds.  The probable top seed and host is West Texas A&M (30-3), which entered the weekend ranked first in the region and won the Lone Start Conference Tournament.  WTAMU is located in Canyon, TX, just outside of Amarillo.

“I couldn’t be more excited,” said Yellowjacket junior Alicia Cazemier.  “It’s just awesome that we could come from last year’s loss (in the conference championship match) and come this far and win it.  Our defense was amazing again.  I’m looking forward to regionals.  It’s the first time in school history, so that’s an honor in itself.  We’ll just do the best we can.”

In front of a large and lively home crowd for the title match, the Yellowjackets picked up right where they left off in Friday’s semifinal win over St. Edward’s.  Behind kills from Jessica Bratton (Casper, WY), Cazemier (Vauxhall, AB) and Ali Watson (Calgary, AB), the Jackets rolled to a 4-0 lead to start game one.  By the midpoint of the game MSUB led 15-8, and the Rattlers never closed the gap to less than four the rest of the way.

The Yellowjackets had 18 kills on a .191 attack percentage in the emotional first game, but their defense once again carried the torch.  The Rattlers managed nine kills in the game, but had 10 errors for a -.021 attack percentage.

The second game seesawed for the first few points with St. Mary’s holding leads of 1-0, 2-1, and 3-2.  A Watson kill put the Jackets ahead 4-3, and they never trailed after that point.  MSUB hit a blistering .433 in game two, committing just two attack errors.

On Friday, St. Mary’s rallied from a 2-0 deficit to defeat Dallas Baptist 3-2 in dramatic come-from-behind fashion.  The Yellowjackets never let the Rattlers get rolling to mount a comeback in game three on Saturday.  Three-straight kills from Cazemier, Jessica Lechner (Pompeys Pillar, MT) and Watson gave MSUB a 9-3 advantage in the early going.  The Rattlers were able to close the gap to 15-12 by the midpoint before the Yellowjackets regrouped and pulled away.  A kill from Lechner and back-to-back kills from Watson preceded a service ace from Natalie Bills (Provo, UT) that gave the Jackets a 22-14 advantage.  At that point the crowd sensed victory was at hand.

“We knew they were going to come out and play hard after their big win yesterday,” Cazemier said of the Rattlers.  “We were ready; we’ve never been more ready.  We took everything they threw at us.  Everything was clicking tonight, offense and defense.”

An Emily Patlan kill at 26-20 pulled the Rattlers to as close as they would get.  On match point, Watson drilled her eleventh kill of the night into the middle of the Rattler defense to give the Yellowjackets the game, the match, and the championship.

Lechner quietly led all players with 13 kills on a .391 attack percentage.  Cazemier finished with a dozen kills and only two errors for a .556 attack percentage.  She was also in on four blocks, two solo and two assisted.  Bratton added 10 kills and matched Cazemier’s block total. 

Bills handed out 42 assists and also picked up five digs for the stingy Yellowjacket defense.  Taylor Faught (Billings, MT) led all players with 16 digs as the Jackets held the Rattlers to a .075 team attack percentage.  Six different Yellowjackets had at least five digs in the match.  Alexis Sandru (Twin Bridges, MT) finished with nine, Watson and Nicole Kruse (Huntley, MT) each had eight, and Cazemier had five.

The Rattlers were led by Samantha Weber’s dozen kills and four blocks.  Stephanie Crowell was also in on four blocks.  Sarah Moreno added six kills, and Patlan finished with four.  Valerie Teter led the St. Mary’s defense with 13 digs.  Patlan had eight digs, and Stephanie Solano and Laura Sudano each had six.

Cazemier was selected by the coaches as the tournament MVP.  She totaled 28 kills over two matches, posting an unstoppable .511 attack percentage.  She also had eight blocks for the tournament.  Watson and Bills were named to the all-tournament team.  Watson, the Heartland’s regular season Player of the Year, had 28 kills and 14 digs in the tourney.  Bills handed out 42 assists in each match, guiding the Jacket attack to a two-match attack percentage of .297.

The Rattlers’ Weber and Matula were also named to the all-tourney team.  Weber had 39 kills in the two matches, including 27 in Friday’s semifinal win.  Matula totaled 94 assists in the tourney, setting a school-record with 69 assists on Friday.  Also selected to the all-tournament team were Lindsey Douglas of St. Edward’s and Ashley Hawkins of Dallas Baptist.