BELLINGHAM, Wash. -- Kristen Hamlin slammed 33 kills to the floor, matching the program's single-match record that has stood for 19 years, as the 17th-ranked and No. 4 seed Cal Poly Pomona volleyball team fought through 48 ties and 19 lead changes to outlast No. 5 seed Azusa Pacific in a grueling five-set thriller (22-25, 26-24, 19-25, 30-28, 18-16) on Thursday night in the 2018 NCAA Division II Volleyball West Region quarterfinals at Carver Gymnasium in Bellingham, Wash.
The Broncos (24-5) advance to the regional semifinals on Friday at 7:30 pm against the winner of the upcoming match between top-seed and No. 2 ranked Western Washington and No. 8 seed Cal State East Bay.
The Cougars see their season come to an end with a 24-7 overall record.
With the exception of the third set where APU won by a convincing 25-19 score, every set had at least 11 ties and several lead changes throughout. After Azusa Pacific won the opening frame 25-22, they threatened to go up 2-0 in the match as they held set point at 24-21 in the second set. After head coach
Rosie Wegrich called a time out, the Broncos responded with five straight points to even the match at one set apiece.
After falling in the third set by the aforementioned 25-19 tally, the Broncos rallied to win the fourth set, but needed 30 points to do so. CPP held set point at 24-23, 25-24 and 26-25 before APU scored twice in a row to hold set and match point at 27-26, but the Broncos fought their way back, scoring two consecutive points -- and four of the last five points of the set -- to even the match at 2-2 and force a tiebreaking fifth set.
The Broncos continued to fight and refused to give up, despite again being faced with match point on three different occasions (at 14-13, 15-14 and 16-15), but a kill by
Kira Zimmerman tied the set up at 16-16 and two straight unforced errors by APU hitters secured the come-from-behind victory for CPP.
Hamlin ended the night with a career-best and matching a program-best 33 kills with a .312 hitting percentage.
Desi Martin and
Andrea Bosnic each had 11 kills while
Jenna Goldsberry tallied 10 kills. Zimmerman handed out a season-high 65 assists and
Alex Bollier had 25 digs, one shy of her season-high.
Chloe Fields-Owens chipped in with a career-high 24 digs as Bosnic (18), Zimmerman (13) and Goldsberry (10) also recorded double-digit digs.
The Broncos hit just . 202 in the match while Azusa Pacific hit at a .255 clip. APU was led by three players, all with 15 kills -- Natalie Klapp, Katarina Radisic and Aliyah Morrison.
Cal Poly Pomona will return to the court Friday at 7:30 pm. Visit the official West Region Tournament web site at
https://WWUVikings.com/NCAAVB for more information throughout the weekend.
