Written by Ken Chu
|
21 January 2010
The Sac State Women's Club Volleyball team opened up the 2010 season January 16-17 at the MLK Battle of the Bay Tournament held at the San Jose State campus. This early season tournament boasted a field of 24 teams representing 17 schools, including last seasons national championship finalists Arizona and UC Santa Barbara. The tournament was co-hosted by San Jose State and Santa Clara University while being sponsored by the NCCVL.
For pool play, the Hornet women seeded 12th for the tournament would compete against Oregon II, UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara. Sac State faced Oregon II first and won an extremely close match 17-15 in the 3rd set. Every set was decided by no more than 3 points in this first match. The Hornets second match was against UC Irvine and also went 3 sets. The teams traded lopsided wins in the first 2 sets, but the Hornets prevailed 15-8 in the final set. The final pool play match was against UC Santa Barabara. Sac State won the first set 25-15 and held off the Gauchos in the 2nd set, winning 25-21 and sweeping the defending national champions.
An early morning power pool started the second day of the tournament for the Hornets. In power pool play, the Hornets defeated UC Davis II and Oregon State. Against the Davis Aggies, the Hornets started off slow, but came back to win the 1st set 27-25 and followed it up with a 25-17 win to take the match. Against Oregon State, the Hornets dominated and didn't allow the Beavers to score more then 12 in either game in a sweep.
After power pool play, the Sac State earned a 1st round bye straight into the quarter finals of the Gold Bracket. Other teams earning a 1st round bye were Cal Poly I, Arizona and Santa Clara. By defeating UC Davis I in the first round, UC Irvine earned a rematch of pool play against Sac State for the quarter finals. The pool play outcome would not be repeated as UC Irvine defeated the Lady Hornets 2-0, handing the Hornets their first lost of the season and ending Sac State's tournament. The Sac State women finish 5th at this season's first tournament and also had 2nd year OH Julie Coelho named to the All Tournament Team.
Photos from the MLK Tournament can be viewed by selecting the Media menu above and click on Picture Galleries.
The women are in action next on Saturday January 23 to open the league season as they host UC Santa Barbara. Game time is set for 7:00PM. The Hornet Men open the season on the road January 23-24 at Fresno State and Cal Poly.
