SIOUX CITY, Iowa – Almost a year ago to date, the Corban University Volleyball program was at the Tyson Events Center preparing for what would end as the best team finish in school history at the NAIA National Championship Final Site. This afternoon, the No. 7-ranked Warriors return to the coveted Midwest stadium for their final scheduled practice before the beginning of their pool play action that is set to start on Wednesday evening.
To read the NAIA's preview on the full 24-team field in Sioux City this week, click HERE.
To see every pool play matchup scheduled for this upcoming week, click HERE.
Corban head coach Kim McLain has led her program back to the final site for the eighth-consecutive season and has now clinched a top 24 finish for her team in every season for the Warriors since her second overall season in 2016. The Navy and Gold are 215-72 since McLain took over in the fall of 2015, ending every season with a winning record and touting an impressive .749 winning percentage, the best mark among every head coach in program history by a wide margin.
This week, her Warriors will look to improve their 31-16 postseason record since 2015 and have their eyes set on yet another national championship match, as they will continue to publicize one of the most consistent offenses the NAIA has to offer. When asked to comment on their upcoming pool play matchups, Coach McLain shared, "Once you reach Iowa, it's a complete reset. Every single one of these teams at the final site are capable of making a postseason run and can punish you when you make mistakes. We need to hold true to our gameplan and not get sucked into playing our opponent's strengths. Serving tough is what got us here, and serving tough is how we will continue to keep our season alive. This is truly one of the most diverse fields I can remember, and we're ready for the challenge!"
A .235 attacking clip through 33 games played thus far this season is the Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) best as they represent one of three teams reaching the final site from the Pacific Northwest, as No. 3-seeded Eastern Oregon University and No. 12-seeded Southern Oregon University will also battle against their own pool play opponents.
The most lethal offensive core is led by the back-to-back CCC Player of the Year and reigning NAIA Attacker of the Year, junior outside hitter Rylee Troutman, who has crushed a team-best 507 kills and averages over four kills per set, both of which rank her in the top ten amongst the best attackers in the nation. She will represent one of only three student-athletes in the top ten that will be taking the courts in Sioux City this week, looking to narrow the gap on the program career record for kills where she currently ranks second all-time in just her junior season of eligibility.
A living highlight reel during the 2022 postseason run, sophomore opposite hitter Makayla Roginski has continued her dominance from the right side of Troutman with another stellar season so far, adding another Second Team All-Conference accolade in CCC play thanks to 309 kills and 97.0 blocks at the net. The 2022 CCC Freshman of the Year and NAIA All-Tournament team member has improved upon every single statistical number she put up last season and looks to repeat once again in Iowa.
The Corban offense is run through the only First Team All-Conference setter in the CCC, sophomore Abby Guindy, who boasts a team-high 685 assists this season, the second most and second highest assist per set mark (5.76) in the conference. Despite dishing out dimes in a 6-2 offensive rotation, the San Jose native has only improved both offensively and defensively throughout her second season with Coach McLain and the Warriors, securing seven double-doubles on the year after earning no double-digit dig counts in the 2022 season.
Defensively for Corban, junior middle blocker Allyson Reid has come alive at the net in her junior season of eligibility for the Navy and Gold, passing the top spot for career blocks in the CCC Tournament semifinals with an entire season still to be played. With 135.0 blocks on the season, she only needs nine more to set yet another defensive standard in the front row of the all-time single season record that has stood for over 25 years.
Defensive specialists have always been a focal point of each Coach McLain team over her tenure at Corban, and this year's postseason team is right in line with that assessment once again, as junior libero Marissa Uehara has caught fire from the backcourt over the second half of the 2023 season. Since the midway point, Uehara has registered just one match under 10 digs, that being the three-set sweep of Aquinas College two weeks ago in the NAIA Opening Round. She's tallied over 20 digs in four different matches this season and has become the team's most consistent serving specialist with 41 aces on the year.
The Warriors' first two matchups won't be easy for them in what many would consider to be a stacked pool grouping this time at the Tyson Events Center. Corban was able to take the top seed in Pool G but will play "host" to a pair of Top 25 teams that offer two completely different sets of challenges for the reigning national runner-up Navy and Gold.
First, Corban (27-6) will match up with No. 22-ranked St. Thomas University out of Miami Gardens, Florida for the first time in each school's history on Wednesday evening, as the Bobcats have reached the final site for the first time in program history in their sixth national tournament appearance. The Bobcats (26-2) earned the 18th-overall seed after defending their home court in a three-set sweep of Marian University in the Opening Round, proving they can hang with some of the best the NAIA has to offer with Marian having earned one of the coveted quarterfinalist positions in last year's postseason run.
St. Thomas ran rampant through the Sun Conference this season, posting a perfect 14-0 conference record and only dropped five sets the entire conference slate. Their only two losses of the year came in the non-conference schedule against a pair of familiar faces in Sioux City in Missouri Baptist and Columbia College, who beat the Bobcats in five and four sets, respectively. Mo Bap is the only common opponent between Corban and St. Thomas this season, as the Warriors took down the Spartans in a four-set battle back in August at the 2023 Midland Showdown.
The Bobcats run a balanced offense through both the outside and opposite sides of the net, with graduate student Amanda Allende and freshman Alexandra Bruno smashing over 40% of their team's total kills for the season in the starting rotation. St. Thomas thrives when they're in system and can make their opponents pay from either side of the net, including a middle hitter unit that has over 300 kills on the season.
Yet another all-around setter awaits the Warriors in their first pool play matchup, as freshman Payton Bertke bats around the rotation to both attack and dig, responsible for over two-thirds of the Bobcats' assists for the year. Though she does attack at a fairly consistent rate of over 2.5 per set when in the front row, her biggest strengths come through with both Allende and Bruno in the contest, allowing her to dish to her best hitters, alongside junior middle blocker Sana Dennis who holds a team-best .372 kill percentage, all while maintaining that threat of dumping the ball when she's in the front row.
In the backcourt, STU starting libero Bianca Grassi stands tall as a 5-9 specialist, hauling in over 5.0 digs per set and nearly a third of her team's digs on the season. The Bobcats run a unique lineup where one of their middle blockers plays a rotation in the backrow, allowing their defensive specialists to sub back in later than usual and thus providing a lopsided advantage that can lean in their favor regardless of their opponent.
Serving can be a double-edged sword for the Bobcats, as they hold great service ace numbers across the board (170) but struggle with consistency having pushed 183 of those service attempts out-of-bounds or into the net. On the reception side, St. Thomas has only allowed 83 aces to their opponents, proving they can adjust on the fly to incoming service strategies but battle to repeat the same process when they take to the offensive side.
Overall, the Bobcats bring a lot of the same qualities and strengths in a formidable opponent to the No. 7-ranked Warriors as the Saints team that the program hosted in their opening round bout. Every single attacker has the potential to become a problem for Corban if they're given the opportunity, setting the Navy and Gold up for an extremely difficult matchup before they can even turn their attention to the rematch the NAIA has been waiting for.
A heartbreaking five-set championship match fell just out of reach for the Warriors in the 2022 season in their first ever matchup with the University of Jamestown, and the Jimmies have an opportunity to knock Corban out of the tournament once again in what will be a top ten matchup on court one in the Tyson Events Center on Friday evening.
Jamestown (24-9) kicked off their repeat season in ugly fashion, dropping four of their first five contests in non-conference play to fall from their top overall national ranking and almost out of the NAIA Top 25 poll for the first time in a handful of seasons. However, the Jimmies dug deep to win thirteen of their next 14 matches, allowing them to steadily climb back into the top ten prior to the final national poll result.
Despite losing multiple games to unranked opponents, the Jimmies' difficult conference schedule out of the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC), where they concluded the 2023 season in third place overall, provided them with the opportunity to secure some season-defining upsets over then No. 3-ranked Northwestern College, No. 9-ranked College of Saint Mary, and No. 10-ranked Midland University. Two of those three upset teams (Red Raiders & Warriors) will be arriving in Sioux City as well for their pool play assignments. The GPAC secured the greatest number of teams with four representatives in Iowa this week and possibly into next, but the CCC was right on their heels with the three teams flying out to the Midwest.
Junior outside hitter Aleah Zieske is the central cog of the Jimmies' offense, providing nearly double the number of kills as the next attacker with 438 kills on the season. And averaging 3.71 per set. She's also one of the serving experts for the squad with 31 aces this year and can hold her own in the backcourt with 330 digs. Senior right side hitter Logan Sherman and senior middle blocker Darienne Johnson follow right behind Zieske with 255 and 251 kills, respectively, with Johnson holding the team-high mark in kill percentage among eligible attackers.
The Warriors will finally get a break from their all-around setting opponents with the 6-2 offense the Jimmies run, as sophomore setter Lily Bertsch and senior setter Paige Oswald share the assisting duties and finished within 100 dimes of each other to end the regular season. Both threaten as offensive attackers as well with timely dump attempts, but Bertsch succeeds at a much higher rate than Oswald. Bertsch is also the leading serving specialist with 45 aces thus far and nearly double the number of digs as Oswald.
Johnson is joined by junior middle hitter Lexi Olson in the front row of a brick wall formation that Jamestown presents, where the two middles are at least partially responsible for 245 of the team's 272 blocks all year long. The entire defensive front runs through Olson and Johnson, making the left and right sides of the net delectable to opposing outsides and right side hitters.
The return of senior libero Elli Holen was instrumental for the Jimmies to fight their way back to Sioux City once again, as the reigning NAIA Defender of the Year puts on a clinic every single time that she steps into the backcourt wearing the prominent orange jerseys. Her 799 digs to average over 6.6 per match is among the best in the NAIA once again and will punish from the service line when given the opportunity as well. The combination of both Troutman and Holen going toe-to-toe once again will make for "must watch" NAIA volleyball action.
Statistically speaking, Corban holds the team advantage in kills per set, kill percentage, blocks per set, and service aces per set, showing that on a consistent basis, the Navy and Gold hold the slight upper hand in a battle of two extremely tough teams. The Warriors and Jimmies are both playing their best volleyball of the season at this very moment, and both represent the paramount "wildcard" teams in this final site tournament. Outside of the top five ranked teams, Corban and Jamestown are both capable of making deep postseason runs, yet only one team from Pool G can emerge victorious and advance to the quarterfinal round on Saturday, December 2nd.
Every livestream for the final site is provided by the NAIA can be found and purchased by clicking HERE, while live stats are provided on a game-by-game basis. Live stats for the Warriors match with the Bobcats can be found HERE, while live stats for the national championship rematch with Jamestown can be found HERE.
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