Dec. 2, 2005
Fresno Pacific, Houston Baptist Qualify for Quarters at NAIA Volleyball
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - Top-seeded Fresno Pacific University (Calif.) and Houston Baptist University (Texas) emerged from Pool A to qualify for the quarterfinals of the 26th Annual NAIA Volleyball National Championship. The tournament is hosted by Point Loma Nazarene University and is being played on campus in Golden Gymnasium November 30 - December 3.
Fresno Pacific clinched its spot early, posting three victories prior to today's win. The Sunbirds have not dropped a game through pool play and is one of three teams still undefeated in tournament play. Lorena Zuleta leads the field in hitting percentage with .594 (43 kills on 64 attempts), followed by Shu Liu at .519. FPU (38-0) is no stranger to the quarterfinals, having played in them 13 out of its 14 appearances. The odd year being 1990 when FPU did not advance out of pool play.
Houston Baptist (39-5) is one of two unseeded teams to advance past pool play, the other being fellow Red River Athletic Conference member Texas Wesleyan University. The Huskies went 3-1 during pool matches, with the lone loss being to the Sunbirds. Junior Nancy Wataka has been stellar during pool play, serving up 11 aces. This is the Huskies second trip out of pool play, making it to the championship match in 2002 - losing to National American University (S.D.).
Albertson College (Idaho), which finished pool play 2-2, finished on Thursday and a third-place finish in the pool. In only their second tournament appearance, the `Yotes started slow, losing the first two before finding their nitch. An upset victory against No. 8 seed Georgetown College (Ky.) jumpstarted the team to finish the season with a win in their final match. Albertson concludes play at 27-6.
Eighth-seeded Georgetown College (Ky.) finished the day on a loss to Houston Baptist and a 1-3 pool play record. The Tigers had the misfortunate loss to unseeded Albertson that started the three match slide. Two of Georgetown's matches went to the five game limit, half of the total number of five-game matches in the entire tournament so far. In their 11th tournament stint, the Tigers finish the year at 39-10.
Lee University (Tenn.) had the misfortunate of not winning a match at the tournament, going 0-4 through the three days. The fifth appearance for the Flames saw the team win only three games in the four matches, two of which against Georgetown. The last win came against Houston Baptist. Lee ends at 27-14 for the 2005 campaign.
POOL A Final Standings
Fresno Pacific 4-0; Houston Baptist 3-1; Albertson 2-2; Georgetown 1-3; Lee 0-4
POOL A Results
Fresno Pacific (Calif.) def. Albertson (Idaho), 3-0 (30-21, 30-18, 30-21)
Georgetown (Ky.) def. Lee (Tenn.), 3-2 (23-30, 27-30, 30-27, 33-31, 16-14)
Houston Baptist (Texas) def. Albertson, 3-0 (30-21, 30-25, 30-19)
Fresno Pacific def. Lee, 3-0 (30-19, 30-20, 30-21)
Albertson def. Georgetown, 3-2 (23-30, 23-30, 30-28, 30-20, 15-13)
Fresno Pacific def. Houston Baptist, 3-0 (30-20, 30-20, 30-20)
Albertson def. Lee, 3-0 (30-26, 30-24, 30-18)
Houston Baptist def. Georgetown, 3-1 (30-20, 30-24, 27-30, 35-33)
Houston Baptist def. Lee, 3-0 (28-30, 30-17, 30-26, 30-11)
Fresno Pacific def. Georgetown, 3-0 (30-22, 30-20, 30-22)
