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MATCH PREVIEW
The 2013 season carries over into the month of December for Central Washington University, as the Wildcats make their second straight appearance in the NCAA Division II Volleyball Championship with a trip to the West Region tournament in San Bernardino, Calif. CWU, the number eight seed in the eight-team regional and an at-large selection from the Great Northwest Athletic Conference with a 15-11 overall record, takes on the region's top seed and the California Collegiate Athletic Association champion, Cal State San Bernardino (25-5).

FOR STARTERS
Two of the perennial powers in the NCAA Division II West Region will square off in the regional quarterfinal round as Central Washington visits Cal State San Bernardino in the last of four opening-round matches at 7:30 p.m. in the Coyote Den on the CSUSB campus.

The trip to the post-season is the second straight for CWU, which is making its fifth overall appearance in the NCAA Division II tournament. Cal State San Bernardino, meanwhile, is hosting the West Regional as its top seed for the seventh time in the last eight seasons after winning the CCAA championship with a 21-1 conference record.

The Wildcats finished in a tie for fourth in the GNAC standings with an 11-7 league record. Only three teams from the conference are represented in this eight-team regional, with GNAC champion Western Washington earning the number five seed and second-place Alaska Anchorage being seeded seventh.

CWU features a balanced offensive attack, with three players totaling between 230 and 240 kills during the regular season. The leader in kills is sophomore Linden Firethorne (Clinton/South Whidbey HS), who averaged 3.12 kills per set during the regular campaign. Sophomore setter Catie Fry (Tacoma/Mount Si HS) is second in the GNAC in assists, becoming just the 15th player in school history to set 1,000 or more assists in a single season. Defensively, the back row trio of junior Kaely Kight (Spokane/Mead HS), senior Zoe Iida (Bothell), and junior Lauren Herseth (Olympia) provides CWU with one of the strongest passing trios in the West Region. Up front, senior Erin Smith (Selah) and sophomore Kaitlin Quirk (Ellensburg) both averaged better than one block per set during the regular season.

Cal State San Bernardino counters with two of the top middle blockers in the West Region in Brenna McIntosh (1.30 blocks per set) and Tori May (0.78 bps), both of whom were named AVCA Division II West Region all-stars on Wednesday. Head coach Kim Cherniss, the AVCA Division II West Region Coach of the Year,  is in her 23rd year guiding the Coyote program. CSUSB also has four regular players averaging better than two kills per set, led by outside hitter Alexandra Torline with 3.30. May (2.64 kps), McIntosh (2.55 kps), and Ashley Solis (2.10 kps) are also among the Coyotes' offensive leaders.

The winner of the CWU-CSUSB quarterfinal match will take on the winner between fourth-seeded Sonoma State (Calif.) and fifth-seeded Western Washington in a semifinal match at 7:30 p.m. on Friday night. The championship match will be played at 7 p.m. on Saturday. Other regional quarterfinal match-ups have third-seeded UC San Diego against sixth-seeded Dixie State (Utah) at noon Thursday, and seventh-seeded Alaska Anchorage faces second-seeded BYU—Hawaii at 2:30 p.m. The SSU-WWU quarterfinal will precede the Wildcats' match at 5 p.m.

The tournament is being played in the Physical Education Building (a.k.a. the Coyote Den) instead of the primary on-campus arena, the Coussoulis Arena, due to the previously-scheduled fall commencement ceremonies in the main arena for Saturday. CWU played two of its four matches at the Coyote Classic in September in the more intimate Coyote Den (1,000 capacity).

SERIES HISTORY
CWU trails the all-time volleyball series with Cal State San Bernardino, 7-1. The Wildcats' lone win in the series came earlier this season in San Bernardino, with the visitors taking a four-set win over the Coyotes in a battle of two nationally-ranked teams (CWU was #24, CSUSB was #14). Six of the previous eight meetings between the two schools have taken place in the state of California, including four in the Inland Empire of southern California. Coincidentally, Cal State San Bernardino has been the Wildcats' post-season nemesis in each of its last three trips to the playoffs (2005 in Los Angeles, 2006 in San Bernardino, and 2012 in Laie, Hawaii).

WHEN IN SAN BERNARDINO ...
The Wildcats have a 2-7 all-time volleyball record in San Bernardino, with both of those victories coming earlier this season against CSUSB and Cal Poly Pomona at the Coyote Classic.

TOUGH SCHEDULE KEYED WILDCATS' PLAYOFF PUSH
One of the most daunting schedules in the country at the NCAA Division II level helped push CWU into the post-season this year. The Wildcats finished just four matches above the .500 mark in the regular season (15-11), and were 11-7 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play, where they finished tied for fourth. However, a non-conference ledger that included six teams that were ranked in the AVCA Top 25 at one point this season helped propel them into contention for a playoff berth.

HOW TOUGH WAS IT?
Six of the Wildcats' opponents, including five during the non-league portion of the schedule, finished among the top 16 in the final AVCA national poll of the regular season. Western Washington was the only GNAC foe to be ranked in that national poll, where the Vikings listed 10th. Eighth-ranked Washburn (Kan.) finished with just four losses during the regular season — one of them to the Wildcats on Sept. 13 in Golden, Colo. — while CWU also knocked off #14 Cal State San Bernardino to hand the Coyotes one of just five regular-season defeats.

THE FIRST MEETING
Outside hitters Jordan Offutt (Sr., Leavenworth/Cascade HS) and LINDEN FIRETHORNE (So.) had 15 kills apiece, and CWU finished with 13 total blocks in a four-set match as the Wildcats defeated Cal State San Bernardino in four sets on Sept. 6 here in San Bernardino. The Wildcats won two of the sets by the minimal two-point margin — 25-23 in the first and 32-30 in the pivotal third set that gave the visitors a 2-1 match lead. Four CWU players finished with 10 or more digs in the match as well, and CWU hit .218 as a team — their highest single-match efficiency in the all-time series with the Coyotes.

'CATS AND 'YOTES: A CASE OF DÉJÀ VU
As mentioned, today's regional quarterfinal will mark the fourth consecutive post-season match for CWU that will pit them against Cal State San Bernardino. The two teams squared off in a heavyweight battle at last year's regional tournament in Hawaii, with the third-seeded Coyotes overcoming a 2-1 match lead by the sixth-seeded Wildcats to take a 3-2 victory. CSUSB swept the Wildcats in their most recent playoff meeting in San Bernardino in 2006, while the two teams played a five-set affair in the regional semifinals at Los Angeles in 2005, with the Coyotes taking that match in five.

ALL-CONFERENCE PERFORMERS
The Wildcats enter the post-season in 2013 with a balanced offensive attack, with no true "go-to" hitter on offense. Sophomore LINDEN FIRETHORNE finished the regular season with 3.12 kills per set and earned honorable mention all-GNAC accolades. The Wildcats' third-leading attacker by kill average — senior right-side hitter Emmy Dolan (Castle Rock) — was also an honorable mention pick, while their second-leading kill producer, sophomore outside hitter RACHEL HANSES (Yakima/West Valley HS), was not even selected to the all-conference teams. Senior middle blocker ERIN SMITH, who averaged 2.01 kills and a career-best 1.12 blocks per set, also earned honorable mention all-GNAC honors. First-team selections for the Wildcats were sophomore setter CATIE FRY and junior libero KAELY KIGHT, who ranked second in assists and digs, respectively, during the regular season. Fry set the offense for 10.62 assists per set, while Kight averaged 5.49 digs per set.

HOW'S THIS FOR BALANCE?
The kill totals for the Wildcats' top three hitters in 2013 are nearly identical through the regular season. Hanses has totaled 238 kills, one more than Firethorne, and just three more than Dolan through 26 team matches. Firethorne, who has played almost exclusively as a reserve in 2013, has actually missed 22 of the Wildcats' sets to date, whereas Hanses and Dolan have been fixtures in the lineup with 92 and 97 sets played (out of the Wildcats' 98 sets in 2013), respectively. In addition, sophomore middle blocker KAITLIN QUIRK could also reach the 200-kill total with 189 on the season.

KIGHT IN ELITE COMPANY
Junior KAELY KIGHT still has this post-season plus a full season remaining in her college career, and there's a legitimate chance that she will not only break the school's career record for digs, but perhaps even reach the 2,000-dig plateau. Kight enters the post-season with 1,410 career digs, a total that already ranks second to her predecessor in the libero position, Brandie Vea (1,774 digs from 2007-10). Kight has broken the 500-dig mark each of the past two seasons, and she needs just seven digs against Cal State San Bernardino to surpass her season total from 2012. The Spokane native will likely need another season above the 500 mark in 2014 to become the first player in school history with 2,000 career digs.

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS FRIGHTFUL ...
Well, the weather conditions in San Bernardino this weekend aren't supposed to be that frightful, but in the spirit of the holiday lyric, it is getting late in the volleyball season for the Wildcats. Their regional quarterfinal match with Cal State San Bernardino on Thursday matches the latest date on the calendar in school history that CWU will play a volleyball match. The last time the Wildcats played on Dec. 5 was at the 1991 NAIA National Tournament — a day on which the Crimson and Black split four matches and did not advance out of pool play at the tournament in Hays, Kan.

TEAM CAPTAINS
CWU players selected three team captains — Kight, Smith, and JORDAN OFFUTT — prior to the 2013 season. For Offutt, who has not played since a season- and career-ending injury on Sept. 14 at Colorado Mines, it marked her second straight selection as a team captain.

ON THE SHELF
Offutt, true freshman outside hitter Jordan Deming (Hillsboro, Ore./Century HS), and redshirt freshman setter Kelsi Kemper (Prineville, Ore./Crook County HS) will all miss the regional tournament due to injury. Also not traveling for the post-season is true freshman Sabrina Wheelhouse (Eugene, Ore./Sheldon HS), who was the only member of the Wildcats' 20-player roster to not play in 2013 as part of a planned redshirt season.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK HONOREES
CWU had two players selected to receive GNAC/Red Lion Hotels Volleyball Player of the Week honors during the 2013 season. Outside hitter RACHEL HANSES earned the offensive honor for the week of Oct. 7-13, helping the Wildcats to wins over Seattle Pacific and Montana State Billings and jumpstarting a five-match win streak in the process. Middle blocker ERIN SMITH picked up Defensive Player of the Week honors two weeks later as CWU completed its first sweep in the state of Alaska since 2007 with a four-set win in Fairbanks and a sweep in Anchorage.