Oregon State
Northrn Arizona
Spikers Rally, Top Beavers For Fiesta Title
September 08, 2001 | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 8, 2001
FLAGSTAFF - Junior Xylena Sanders (Oceanside, Calif.) tallied 18 kills, 10 blocks and a .455 attack percentage to earn MVP honors as the Northern Arizona volleyball team rallied from a two-game hole to defeat Oregon State 27-30, 29-31, 30-28, 30-15, 15-13 in the championship match of the Fiesta Bowl Volleyball Tournament. NAU successfully defended its tournament title with the victory and Sanders became the second two-time Fiesta Bowl MVP, following up her 1998 effort as a true freshman.
In the third-place match earlier Saturday, Radford (1-5) rode the 22 kills and 15 digs from all-tournament team member Katie Sherwood to a 30-28, 30-21, 30-32, 30-25 win over UC Irvine (1-5). Radford hit a strong .261 in the match, which included .340 combined in games one and two. All-tournament team member Chanda McLeod led UCI with 19 kills, 17 digs and a .390 attack percentage in the match.
The Lumberjacks (5-1) had to come from way back to win their fifth straight match, dropping game two after leading 15-8 and falling behind 13-4 in game three. But their block came up huge against the Beavers (5-2), as the team posted 17.5 team blocks in the match, which included five in game four alone, which NAU dominated. OSU hit just .151 in the match, which included a minus-.114 effort in game four. NAU cinched the match by scoring the final four points on a pair of kills each by Sanders and senior Maggie Barrera (Salinas, Calif.).
With the sweep of the Fiesta field this weekend, NAU improved to 25-2 (.926) at home against non-conference opposition since 1995, and improved its league-best home record over that span to 62-12 (.838).
Helping Sanders in the winning cause for NAU was Barrera with 22 kills, 15 digs, 3 aces and a .313 attack average, followed by all-tournament team junior Chelsea Robb (Phoenix, Ariz.) with 16 kills, 15 digs and 3 aces. Senior Megan Greene (Porterville, Calif.) added 12 digs and 7 blocks on defense.
In the losing effort for OSU, all-tourney member Gina Schmidt tallied 25 kills and 12 digs, added by 14 kills and a .407 average from Michele Solomon.
2001 Fiesta Bowl All-Tournament Team
Xylena Sanders, NAU (MVP), Laura Collins, OSU, Chanda McLeod, UCI, Chelsea
Robb, NAU, Gina Schmidt, OSU, Katie Sherwood, RAD.
