Women’s Volleyball leads strong competition

By Greg Avetisyan |Staff Writer|

Coyotes Women’s Volleyball finished off a strong weekend with victories over California State Stanislaus University and Chico State University.

A season full of records continued while Sophomore middle blocker Brenna McIntosh set another school record. McIntosh had an attack percentage of .933 on 14 kills and no errors against Stanislaus.

McIntosh broke the record previously held by Coyote greats Samantha Middleborn, Sara Rice and Sharea Drawn, who shared the mark.

The Coyotes shutout the Warriors winning the game 3-0 at Coussoulis Arena. They used strong runs in the opener to gain a convincing win in the first set.

However the second and third sets were much closer as the Warriors and Coyotes battled it out until the Coyotes took over to become victorious.

The following night the Coyotes defeated the Chico State Wildcats 3-2. The Coyotes used their teamwork and chemistry to win the decisive fifth set.

McIntosh set another school record with 15 block assists during the victory.

“It was an incredible feeling. I was so focused on winning that I didn’t think about my stats and was shocked when I heard the results after the matches,” said McIntosh.

McIntosh went on to praise her teammates, “I would not have been able to break those records if it wasn’t for my teammates, they played great and opened things up for me when it came to attacking.”

The Coyotes are now ranked third in the NCAA Division II West Region Volleyball Poll. They are 18-5 overall on the season behind only No.1 UC San Diego and No.2 BYU-Hawaii.

It has been more than 20 years since Head Coach Kim Cherniss took over the Coyotes volleyball team. Over the past two decades she has built a league powerhouse in women’s volleyball posting a 499-190 record going into this season.

Cherniss’s team has now won 15 of their last 16 games this season and is 13-1 in conference play.

The top eight teams in the rankings at the end of the regular season will advance to the West Regional playoffs.

“The team is really focused on becoming better, coach is trying to motivate us each and every practice. We’ve really been working on what some of our weaknesses are and looking at the next game,” said senior Danielle Newcombe.

With the season winding down, the Coyotes are still taking it one game at a time to remain focused and remain a top ranked team.

Newcombe is one of three seniors on this year’s Coyotes joining Destiny McIntyre and Stephanie Sinohui.

“As a senior its crazy to think the end of my career here at Cal State is near. It definitely fuels the fire though, it’s a motivation of mine to go out with a bang. I’ll miss the team and the relationships that come out of being on the team, as well as stepping out onto the court and feeling at home,” said Newcombe.

The Coyotes will continue their season on Friday at California State University East Bay and Saturday at California State University Monterey Bay.

Come support the Coyotes as they continue on their journey to reach the NCAA Division II Championship game in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.