Horizon League Volleyball NCAA Tournament Release
Dec. 1, 2004
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Horizon League champion Loyola University Chicago (22-8) will play at the University of Wisconsin (19-9) in the first round of the 2004 NCAA Division I Volleyball Championship Friday, Dec. 3, in Madison, Wis. The Ramblers, under the direction of first-year head coach Tim O'Brien , will be making their first NCAA appearance since the 2000 season when they lost to Kansas State University 3-1 in the first round at Malibu, Calif.
The Ramblers earned the League's automatic bid with an amazing five-game, come-from-behind victory over upset-minded Cleveland State University in the tournament championship match Nov. 21. Down two games to none, Loyola fought off an incredible eight match points by the Vikings in game three to win 41-39 and went on take game four 30-20 and game five 15-12, scoring the final three points of the match .
Loyola is attempting to become the first Horizon League team to win a match in the NCAA Tournament. Horizon League teams are a combined 0-12 since former member University of Notre Dame first represented the League in 1992. The League has received an automatic bid every season since 1995 and earned multiple bids in both 1999 and 2000.
Loyola Wins Tourney Title in Dramatic Fashion: Loyola claimed its first Horizon League Volleyball Championship title since 2000 with a come-from-behind victory (25-30, 25-30, 41-39, 30-20, 15-12) over Cleveland State Nov. 21.
Trailing two games to none, the Ramblers (22-8) fought off an incredible eight match points in an epic game three and then pulled away late in game five. Loyola's Nichol Amberg was named the tournament's most valuable player with 30 kills in the championship match.
Cleveland State (15-13), which was making its first championship match appearance, had its share of chances. In addition to the eight match points, the Vikings led 8-5 early in game five but couldn't put Loyola away. With the score tied at 12, the Ramblers scored the final three points on a kill by Kathryn Langheld and back-to-back attack errors by Julie Stover .
The Vikings hit an astonishing .452 in claiming the first two games (43-5-84) and appeared poised for the upset as they served for the match eight times. Each time, however, Loyola responded, finally winning the game on consecutive kills by Langheld and Keily Zins .
Hilary Stromath added 17 kills for Loyola, while Langheld and Courtney Ashley had 14 apiece. Setter Lauren Holbrook finished with 74 assists.
Jamie Bouyer topped Cleveland State with 26 kills, and Nickole Kennedy had 17. Setter Kelly Crain added 63 assists, 13 kills and eight digs.
Amberg was joined on the All-Tournament Team by Stromath, Holbrook, Bouyer, Crain and Cleveland State's Danielle Seifker , who had 12 blocks in the final. With the win, Loyola earned the League's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Fruit Highlights Postseason Specialty Awards: Karen Fruit of regular-season champion University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee was named the 2004 Horizon League Volleyball Player of the Year to highlight the League's annual postseason awards.
Other individual honors were awarded to Megan Knightly of Butler University as Defensive Player of the Year, Leanne Felsing of UW-Milwaukee as Newcomer of the Year and Kathy Litzau of UWM as Coach of the Year.
Fruit, a senior outside hitter, leads the Horizon League and ranks 19th in the nation with 5.17 kills per game, including 5.49 in League matches, and posted 20 or more kills 18 times in 27 outings. She is the fifth UW-Milwaukee player to be named Player of the Year in the last six years.
Among Fruit's season highlights are a 31-kill, 18-dig performance at Wright State University and a 25-kill, 22-dig outing at Loyola University Chicago. In her final regular-season match, she had 26 kills, 19 digs and a school-record eight service aces. In addition, Fruit broke her own school record with 512 kills this season and is one of only two players in UWM's Division I history to collect at least 1,000 kills, 1,000 digs and 100 aces in their careers.
Knightly, a junior libero, tops the Horizon League with 4.51 digs per game and helped Butler finish second in the regular-season standings. She recorded 10 or more digs in all 29 matches this season, including 20 or more nine times with a season-high of 30 at Wright State University. Her defense helped the Bulldogs lead the League in opponent hitting percentage and finished third digs. Knightly becomes the first Butler player to be named Defensive Player of the Year in the award's three-year history.
Felsing, a freshman outside hitter, emerged as a second offensive option to Fruit in her rookie season at UW-Milwaukee, averaging 2.83 kills and 2.92 digs per game. She posted 12 double-doubles, including a season-high 18 kills at the University of Illinois at Chicago and 26 kills at Butler. Felsing is the fifth UWM player to be selected Newcomer of the Year in the last nine seasons.
Litzau earned her sixth Coach-of-the-Year award in 12 seasons at UW-Milwaukee, extending her own League record, as she led the Panthers (19-8, 13-1) to their sixth regular-season title in the last eight years. Litzau, who owns a career-record of 227-137, previously won the award in 1996, '99, 2000, '01 and '03.
Loyola's Holbrook Joins Elite Company: Loyola senior setter Lauren Holbrook , a three-time first-team All-Horizon League pick, joined a select group earlier this season when she became just the third player in the rally-scoring era (since 2001) to collect 5,000 assists and 1,000 digs in her career. Holbrook, who reached the mark within weeks of Ashile Hain of the University of California-Irvine and April DeCoste of Georgia State Univ-ersity, has 5,358 assists and 1,289 digs.
