NCAA Tournament bound

For the fourth straight season, Central’s volleyball team is heading to NCAA Division II Volleyball Tournament, after finishing third in the GNAC with a 16-4 conference record.

“We talked about it at the beginning of the year,” head coach Mario Andaya said. “We want to be playing the best that we’re capable of at the end of the year, and I like where we’re at right now.”

The fifth seeded Wildcats, 20-7 overall, face fourth seeded Cal State University San Bernadino (CSSB) in the first round of the tournament on Friday at the west regionals held in Anchorage, Alaska.

This will be the fifth battle between the teams in the last four seasons. The previous four outcomes were split between the teams, with CSSB winning both times the teams have met in the NCAA tournament.

Facing each other so often gives both teams familiarity with each other.

“They’re a good blocking team,” Andaya said. “So we have to make sure we’re hitting well, know where to hit and extend rallies.”

Central exited the tournament early last season, losing in the first round to Brigham Young University Hawaii.

“It definitely lights a fire under us,” senior setter Catie Fry said. “We don’t want to go home. We want to stay there as long as possible, even though it’s Alaska in December.”

The winner of the match-up will face the winner of the game between GNAC champion and first seeded University Alaska Anchorage (UAA) and eighth seeded Dixie State University (DSU) Saturday. Central has already faced both teams this year.

The Wildcats lost both games against UAA and won their match-up with DSU. The winner of that game will go on to the west regional finals on Sunday.

The Wildcats four consecutive tournament bids come after a five year hiatus from the tournament.

“It’s pretty exciting, it kind of just shows that we’ve left something kind of important here…that hopefully the underclassmen can kind of continue on,” senior outside hitter Linden Firethrone said.

The Wildcats enter the game leading the nation with 2.92 blocks per set, and five different players earning all-conference honors.

Firethorne and Fry received All-GNAC selections, as well as sophomore middle blocker Sabrina Wheelhouse. Junior outside hitter Kiah Jones and senior middle blocker Kaitlin Quirk earned honorable mentions.

Central has not made the second round of the tournament since 2005, which coincidentally ended with a loss to CSSB.

“I think we’ve fought against some of the toughest teams in the nation really well this year,” Firethorne said.