SIOUX CITY, Iowa – Fourth-ranked Bellevue University dropped their Thursday morning match with a loss to tenth-ranked Northwestern College (Iowa) in the single-elimination match, 23-25, 20-25, 25-23 and 13-25 at the 2008 NAIA National Tournament in Sioux City, Iowa held at the Tyson Events Center/Gateway Arena. Bellevue will close out their season at 32-6 overall as Northwestern will advance to the “Elite-Eight” and improve to 30-8.
The Bruins will conclude their season with a school-best winning percent at .842 (32-6) better than in 2000 (34-18) and 2006 (31-9), the last time the Bellevue program eclipsed the 30-win mark. At the NAIA National Tournament Bellevue will go to 5-7 all-time.
In the first set, Bellevue was down early, 1-3, but was able to get back to even with the Red Raiders at 6-6. Around the midway point of the first set, the two teams would tie for the 11th time (16-16) before Northwestern would open a three point lead at 21-18, the largest for either team. Bellevue would close the margin and tie the score one last time at 23 but it wasn’t enough as Northwestern scored the final two points to take the victory (25-23).
Midway through the second set, Northwestern would begin to pull away from Bellevue taking a five-point, 11-6, lead only to extend that margin to seven at 19-12. Bellevue would rally late going on a 10-3 run to close the gap to three (19-22), but once again the Red Raiders had an answer and out-scored the Bruins 3-1 from that point on.
In a see-saw set four, Bellevue would keep the score close extending their margin late by going on two, three-point runs forcing back-to-back timeouts by Northwestern following a kill by Bellevue’s Jaclyn Thorson making the score 21-17. Bellevue would hold off a late surge by their opponent and win their only set of the single-elimination match, 25-23.
Bellevue’s season would come to a close in the fourth set when Northwestern opened up a 10-4 lead that the Bruins were unable to rebound from. The tenth-ranked Red Raiders extended their lead to as many as 14 points (23-9) at the end of the set. The Bruins would close the final score to 12 points but it wasn’t enough as the final score would give Northwestern a 25-13 advantage to advance to the “Elite-Eight”.
Bellevue University would have two players in double-digit kills with freshman, Kali Schnacker, leading the way with 17 hitting .344 for the match. Junior, Rachel Muller, who didn't record a kill in the first set finished with 12 for the match adding 21 digs defensively. Leah Keller and Maureen Wardian added 8 kills each as the Bruins hit .158 for the contest. Defensively, Katy Gregory led the team with a match-high 25 digs as Candace Clow and Gabby Pfannenstiel added 13 and 11 each. Senior, Candace Clow had 47 set assists with 4 kills and will end her career as the all-time leader in set assists at Bellevue University with over 6000.
Hillary Hanno had a match-high 28 kills for Northwestern hitting .433 with 8 digs as two other Red Raiders had double-figure kills; Randa Hulstein and Rylee Hulstein with 17 and 11 apiece. Rylee Hulstein had 19 digs to lead the defense getting 16 from Randa Hulstein including 11 from Janna Bloemendaal. Kaitlin Beaver finished with 61 set assists and 13 digs. The Red Raiders hit .328 for the match and will advance to face Biola University in their next match.
