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November 10, 2010 in Sports
Volleyball notes: Steady Pirates gear up for tourney
Whits open against Concordia-Moorhead
Coaches are always trying to prod their teams to play their best as the season progresses.
That wasn’t an easy task for Whitworth volleyball coach Steve Rupe because his team has played at a solid, steady level throughout while capturing the school’s first Northwest Conference title since 2005 and qualifying for the NCAA Division III tournament.
And the Pirates still got better when it mattered most.
“We played really well last weekend, as good as we’ve looked all year and I’m kind of excited to be going into nationals that way,” Rupe said of wins over Willamette and Lewis & Clark. “We haven’t had a bad match or practice all year; we’ve been pretty even, not a lot of highs and lows. I think that’s going to help us.”
The fifth-seeded Pirates (17-6) will face fourth-seeded and 18th-ranked Concordia-Moorhead (24-6) at 10:30 a.m. PST Friday at St. Thomas University in St. Paul, Minn., one of eight regional sites for the 63-team field. If the Pirates win, they’ll probably face top-seeded and No. 11-rated St. Olaf in the second round. NWC runner-up Puget Sound meets host St. Thomas, ranked No. 12, at 6 p.m.
Rupe doesn’t know a lot about Concordia, located in Moorhead, Minn., about 240 miles from St. Paul. The Cobbers and Pirates have no common opponents.
“We’ll just go in and do our things and see how fast we learn what they do,” said Rupe, whose team is 26th, just outside the AVCA’s Top 25 rankings. “If you look at their stats they have two kids that appear to be their big guns. I think that gives us an advantage, because we have four people they have to look at stopping.”
Rupe has guided four teams to nationals in 12 seasons at Whitworth. His 2002 and 2005 teams made the Sweet 16. His 2001 squad lost to the eventual national champion in the round of 32.
Eagles still battle
Eastern Washington has dealt with numerous medical issues this season and now the Eagles will be without standout middle blocker Chenoa Coviare for the last two weeks of the regular season. Coviare injured her knee during Saturday’s five-set loss to Portland State.
Chenoa Rossi-Childress stepped in for Coviare and performed well, head coach Miles Kydd said.
EWU (7-16, 6-7), sixth in the Big Sky, must finish in the top four to make the conference tournament.
Former Washington State Cougar Tangerine Wiggs has 85 kills as a part-time starter for top-ranked Florida. Wiggs, a 6-foot-2 sophomore from Seattle, ranks fifth on the team in kills and has one of the better hitting percentages (.309).
Wiggs redshirted at WSU in 2008 and saw limited time in 2009, playing behind right-side hitter Rachel Todorovich, who was Pac-10 All-Freshman honorable mention last season. Wiggs left WSU in search of more playing time.
“It was a matter of (her saying), ‘Am I going to play?’ ” Cougars coach Andrew Palileo said. “And I said, ‘Hey, you can compete with Rachel.’ ”
Vandals move up
Idaho climbed into third place in the WAC with gritty five-set road wins over Nevada and Utah State, dropping those schools to fourth and fifth in the standings. The Vandals have three of their last four WAC matches at home, beginning with second-place New Mexico State on Thursday.
The Vandals are in position to finish at .500 or above in conference for the eighth straight season.
Spokane pulled within a game of NWAACC East Division-leading Blue Mountain with a four-set win over the Timberwolves last Saturday. CCS (29-9, 11-2) entertains Big Bend tonight while Blue Mountain visits third-place Wenatchee Valley.
Pros give precious pointers 
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