Scorpions fall to NAIA’s top team in quarterfinals

COLUMBIA, Mo. — The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College’s magical season came to a close as the Scorpions fell 3-0 to the No. 1 team in the country on Friday in the quarterfinals of the NAIA Women’s Volleyball National Championship.

Fresno Pacific (35-1) won by scores of 30-17, 30-24, 30-21, ending the Scorpions’ season with a 36-9 record. The Sunbirds move on to face No. 4 Biola University (Calif., 32-7) at 9:30 a.m. today in the semifinals. The championship match is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. today.

“We have nothing to be ashamed of,” Scorpion coach Marcus Young said. “We ran into the best team in the nation, and they had too much firepower for us. We hung with them as much as we could. It was a great season for us. I don’t think a lot of people expected (us) to be here in the quarterfinals.”

UTB-TSC shot a poor .083 in the first game of the match but played better in the second and third games. The Scorpions were tied, 15-15, with FPU in Game 2 before the Sunbirds pulled away for a 30-24 victory. In Game 3, the Scorpions had a 16-15 lead before the Sunbirds flexed their muscles to win, 30-21.

Talita Milasauskas, the Red River Athletic Conference and NAIA Region VI Player of the Year, finished with 14 kills, five blocks and five digs to lead the Scorpions. Claudia Alarcon added 11 kills and five digs, while Daianarah Bracero had 34 assists. Lesly Montes led the Scorpions in digs with nine.

The Sunbirds, which had four players over 6-feet tall, were led by 6-0 Marin Canaday with 16 kills as 6-3 Thais Julio and 5-10 Fabiana Leomil each compiled 10 kills apiece. Setter Shu Liu had 46 assists and five kills.

UTB-TSC was the Cinderella team in the quarterfinals, coming in as the lowest seed remaining.

“This has opened up a lot of eyes around the NAIA volleyball circles,” UTB-TSC Director of Athletics Dan Huntley said. “A lot of important people who didn’t know much about us before know a lot about us now. This will help us in recruiting and in getting national recognition by those who vote in the polls. It’s a great thing for our campus.”

The Scorpions, who came into the tournament as the 12th seed out of 20 teams, surprised ninth-seeded Lewis-Clark State College on Wednesday and finished 2-1 in Pool B play to qualify for the round of 10.

A big 3-1 win over No. 13 Madonna University on Friday morning advanced the Scorpions into the national quarterfinals.

Like they did in their pool play victory over Lewis-Clark, the Scorpions came back after losing the first game of the match to win three straight. Madonna took the first game, 30-25, but the Scorpions grabbed the next three, 30-28, 30-19, 32-30.

“We made too many mistakes in the first game, and we had to cut those out to have a chance against them,” Scorpions coach Marcus Young said. “Madonna is a very disciplined and well-coached team. But as it turned out, we had too much firepower for them.”

Milasauskas, Alarcon, Katie Japp and Jenny Ashley all played big, with all four them getting in double figures in kills in the same match for the first time this season.

Milasauskas had her fifth triple-double of the season with 18 kills, 14 digs and 13 blocks, which was her season high. She also had seven solo blocks and six assisted blocks.

Alarcon provided 22 kills and 14 digs, as Japp contributed 16 kills and 17 digs with Ashley adding 10 kills. Daianarah Bracero had 62 assists, and Viviana Lozano picked up 20 digs.

In the critical fourth game, the Scorpions were ahead 29-27 before Madonna scored three points in a row to take a 30-29 lead. However, a block and one kill from Milasauskas made it 31-30, before Japp got the final kill of the match in the 32-30 victory.

Lubovj Tihomirova, a 6-2 junior from Riga Litvia, came into the match as the nation’s second-leading player in kills per game with a 5.9 average. She had 18 kills to keep her average, but the Crusaders (35-11) did not give her much support. Madonna had 29 attack errors and a hitting percentage of .187 compared to UTB-TSC’s .303, led by Milasauskas with .375 and Ashley with .368.

The Scorpions swept through both the Red River Athletic Conference and the NAIA Region VI Tournaments, winning six straight matches by 3-0 records.

At the national tournament, they won three matches out of five tries, losing only to the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the land.

Ashley is the lone senior on the Scorpion squad, which is likely to receive a high preseason ranking in 2008 by advancing to the national quarterfinals.