Spikers get at-large bid

Invited to NCAA regionals despite loss to Whitewater

By Troy Mallat

The phone rang around 10 p.m., Sunday night. Head coach Patti Ford put the receiver to her ear and heard a message the Falcon volleyball team had been waiting for all season - they were invited to the NCAA Division III Volleyball Tournament.

After a nine hour conference call involving the NCAA selection committee, the Falcons (30-6, 8-0 in the WIAC) were given a No. 2 seed in the Central region.

UW-RF will travel to Central College in Pella, Iowa to play the winner of the Washington (Mo.)-Westminster game Friday night. The No. 1 seed is Central, who is also the top-ranked team in the nation.

Going into Sunday night, the Falcons' chance for a bid in the tournament looked murky after UW-Whitewater beat the Falcons, 9-15, 15-11, 15-13, 11-15, 15-11 in the WIAC tournament finals Saturday afternoon. Only four teams out of the 48-team field receive at-large bids; the rest earn automatic bids in conference tournaments or are set aside for schools not affiliated with a conference.

"This puts us in the hands of somebody other than ourselves," Ford said after Saturday's loss. "I would be disappointed if two teams (from the WIAC) didn't get in. We've proved to be one of the top volleyball conferences in the U.S."

The conference proved that fact again with an exciting championship game Saturday afternoon at Karges Center. The game was a repeat of the two teams' performance during the regular season, a match the Falcons won in five-games. Momentum changed with every touch of the ball, which Ford says is "typical of two strong teams."

After the Falcons won the first game, the Warhawks came back to take a 10-1 lead in the second when sophomore outside hitter Allison Erickson spiked one through the Falcons' defense.

The Falcons turned the tide, getting as close as 11-9 after senior Sarah Carlson banged a spike off the Warhawk block for one of her 20 kills. But that was as far as they could get, losing the second game 15-11.

"They'd get momentum, and we'd have to struggle to gain momentum," Ford said of the back-and-forth play. "I can't see there was one turning point of the match."

The two teams split the next two games to get to the crucial game five where the Falcon defense took a short break, which ended up costing them the match.

"When you get in rally scored games and your defense breaks down, you can't do that when they have hitters," Ford said, referring to Erickson, her sister Melinda Erickson, and Lynn Olsen, who combined for 59 kills.

The Falcons had four players reach double-figures in kills. Melissa Mattson spiked 21. Carlson had 20, and Meggan Klassen and Joy Nicholson added 17 and 16, respectively. Setter Holly Olson dished out 71 assists.

To get to the championship match, the Falcons had to dispose of a pesky UW-Eau Claire team that finished the conference season at 4-4. After the nearly two-and-a-half hour match, the Falcons came away with an 18-20, 15-5, 15-11, 15-4 win over the Blugolds.

The difference in the match was the Falcons out-hitting Eau Claire, .242-.144. The players who have led River Falls all season did it again as Klassen, Mattson, Nicholson, and Carlson combined for 74 of the team's 84 kills. Klassen had 24 kills in just 46 attempts.