SAN BERNARDINO — The Stanislaus State women's volleyball team came into the conference championship semifinal match with a lot of confidence and on a roll. That hot streak, however, and the Warriors' season came to an end Friday night after a well-played, epic battle against rival Chico State.
Chico State, the CCAA North winner, was just a couple of points better than Stan State as the Wildcats edged the Warriors, 25-23, 25-23, 26-24, in a thriller inside the Coussoulis Arena at Cal State San Bernardino.
Despite not advancing, the 2016 Warriors moved the program up another notch by competing well in the semifinal match while individuals set milestones and school records. This squad posted the institutions first-ever postseason victory Thursday night in a 3-1 win over Division I-bound UC San Diego.
During Friday night's match,
Blair Ehrlich became the Stan State single season record holder with 421 kills — surpassing Stanislaus Hall of Famer Sarah Barnett, who had 419 in 2002. Ehrlich finished her tremendous career with 1,313 kills, third most in school history.
Setter
Maddi Seidl became just the fourth Warrior to ever post 1,000 or more assists in a season on Friday as she ended the year with 1,024 for fourth best on the Warriors' top-10 list. In just two seasons, Seidl ended up with 1,876 career assists, which put her third on the Stan State career top-10 list.
With seven more blocks against Chico State,
Taylor Massengale ends up with 216 in her career for sixth best.
Friday night, the Warriors jumped out to early leads in the first two sets only to see the Wildcats comeback. Stan State had a 6-0 lead in the second and led 14-7 until Chico scored nine straight points to swing the momentum.
In the third set, Stan State turned a 23-21 deficit into a 24-23 lead with the serve to try to extend the match, but Chico State (23-6) rallied for three points for the win to advance to the championship match Saturday night against either CSUSB or Sonoma State.
Ehrlich led the Warriors (14-15) with 11 kills, followed by Massengale's 10 kills. Massengale also had six total blocks to account for 14 points.
Jocelyn Cervantes led four players in double-digits in digs with 21.
Hailey Gruetzmacher had 17 digs. Seidl posted 32 assists and 13 digs in her final match as a Warrior.
Olivia Mediano spiked 12 kills to lead Chico while CCAA Player and Setter of the Year Torey Thompson dished 36 assists with a team-best 18 digs.
