UC San Diego Comes Back to Capture Volleyball Title

About one month ago, Washington University took over the top spot in the NCAA’s Division III volleyball poll by defeating the UC San Diego to win the championship of the Washington University National Invitational.

Saturday night, UC San Diego got its revenge. Playing in front of an Division III-record crowd of 3,417 at Washington University’s Field House, the Tritons rallied from a one-game deficit to defeat the defending champion Bears 15-4, 13-15, 9-15, 15-8, 15-6 to win the Division III national championship.

The national title was the Tritons’ sixth in the 10 years there has been a Division III playoff. But if the Tritons (37-8) hadn’t been to Washington University (31-3) earlier in the year, there wouldn’t have been a championship this season, UC San Diego Coach Doug Dannevik said..

“That made about 100 percent of the difference,” said Dannevik, whose team beat St. Benedict in Friday’s semifinal. “If we hadn’t seen St. Benedict and Wash. U. earlier in the year, there’s no way we would have won.

“We’re an entirely different team that Wash. U. is. We don’t have the height to battle with them. Our strategy tonight was to use the whole court, and serve short from the first part of the game to counter their height.”

It looked early like the Tritons’ strategy would pay off. After the Bears jumped to a 4-1 lead in the first game, UC San Diego responded with 14 consecutive points--most coming on front-line blocks by All-Americans Elizabeth Tan and Vikki Van Duyne--to win 15-4.

UC San Diego won the first four points of the second game as well before Washington University started to roll behind senior All-American outside hitter Kathy Bersett, the Division III’s player of the year.

On the strength of several kills by Bersett, Wash. U. climbed back into it but still trailed the 11-8 when the Bears’ Dianne Stites went out briefly with a turned ankle. Her replacement, Christine Masel, responded with two kills to make it 11-10.

The Bears won the last four points of the game for a 15-13 victory, then rolled to an 11-4 lead on the strong serving of freshman Leslie Catlin in the third game en route to a 15-9 victory.

The Tritons didn’t fall apart.

“We just needed to go back to our fundamentals, and follow the game plan,” said Tan, the team captain. “We went over it a million times before this match, and we knew by the way we had played in the first game that we could do it again.”

“I think in the second and first game, our mind set changed,” said sophomore outside hitter Elizabeth Vesanovic, who made the all-tournament team along with Tan and Van Duyne. “In our minds, I think we said: ‘We got it.’ And that kind of thinking can get you in trouble.”

Dannevik decided a change in strategy was necessary. “Kathy Bersett is a great player,” he said. “We had to make adjustments in the block to take her away. We tried to serve so she couldn’t get the ball.”

With the help of some substitutions, the Tritons surged to a 15-8 victory to take the match to the fifth game.

Then they poured it on.

“You have to give them credit,” Stites said. “They played a lot better than the last time they were here. They were getting to everything.”