NAMPA, Idaho (Nov. 20) – The Central Washington University volleyball team saw its 2014 season come to an end, losing in the first round of the NCAA Division II West Regional to fifth-seeded BYU-Hawaii 3-1 Thursday afternoon.
 
The fourth Wildcats conclude its season with a 19-8 record, while the Seasiders improve to 22-5 and advance to the semi-finals.
 
The first set had its shares of long rallies and CWU was able to take advantage of most of them.  The Wildcats got on the board first after a rally that saw both teams handles the ball four times ended in a Seasider hitting error.  The Wildcats build a 16-13 lead off strong blocking by Julie Hulbert and Jordan Deming who had three and five respectively in the set.   The Wildcats ended the set on a 3-0 run capped by an ace by Catie Fry to win the frame 25-19.
 
"Our defense scored a lot for us in this set and it helped our point productions." CWU head coach Mario Andaya said about the first set. "Unfortunately this didn't continue in the following sets."
 
The BYUH offense controlled the second set as the Seasiders hit .436 with 19 kills and just two attack errors.  Central Washington hit .109 and were only able to block one Seasider attack, compared to five in the first set as BYUH took a 25-17 set victory.
 
The Wildcats fell behind 7-2 to open the third set and the Seasiders maintained momentum, growing its lead to 17-7.  Central Washington was unable to mount a comeback losing the set 25-18.  The Wildcat offense couldn't find a rhythm in the third frame hitting .150 despite having just three attack errors.  BYU-Hawaii on the other hand had six errors but still managed to hit .326 in the set.
 
The Central Washington offense got back on track to start the fourth set, taking an early 9-8 lead.  The Seasiders responded by going on a 6-0 to lead 14-9 midway through the set.  The Wildcats were able to put together a couple small runs, but were unable to contain the BYUH attack, losing the final set 25-19.
 
"We couldn't really get our offense going in the match and with our block not scoring for us like it did in the first set, it made it tough to keep up," Andaya said about sets two through four. "BYU had a lot of fire power and we had a hard time slowing them down, my hat is of to them."
 
Linden Firethorne led the Wildcats with 14 kills and Deming followed with 10 of her own.  Deming also had six blocks on the day while Hulbert finished with four.  Fry
 Fry had a team-high 35 assists and was second in digs with 11.  Central's all-time dig leader, Kaely Kight, ended the night with 18 digs.
 
The regions top hitter, Shih Ting Chen, who had match-high 27 kills, led the Seasider attack.  Three BYUH hitters collected double-digit kill numbers in the match.
 
"If we were going to go out, we wanted to go out knowing a team played better," Andaya said.  "I felt good about our effort all season, and we accomplished our goal of making it to regionals. I am proud of our girls as they allowed us the opportunity to make a postseason run."