CASPER, Wyo. - The College of Southern Idaho will be hanging another NJCAA National Championship banner in the CSI Gymnasium soon thanks in large part to an amazing comeback in the NJCAA National Championship match Saturday against Western Nebraska. The Golden Eagles trailed two games to one and 17-9 in game four before forging an unbelievable comeback, leading to a 25-22, 23-25, 24-26, 25-22, 15-9 victory and their 11th National Championship.
In that momentus fourth set and down 17-9, Alexandra Espinosa started the comeback with a kill. Alycia Wodke added a kill before an error by Western Nebraska and a kill by Espinosa forced a WNCC timeout.
The Cougars came out of the timeout and scored off a kill by Barbara Rabanal. But Rabanal followed her point with a service error to again pull CSI within four points. The two teams traded by points to 20-16. Then three straight attack errors by WNCC, one a block by Kendall Brock and Wodke pulled CSI within one. The two teams battled back and forth until another service error forged a tie at 22.
That's when national tournament MVP Tawnee Luafalemana took over. The middle blocker put down two kills followed by a Luana Thompson ace to give the Golden Eagles the fourth set and keep their national championship hopes alive.
The final set was all CSI as the Golden Eagles jumped out to a 5-0 lead and never trailed.
Luafalemana led CSI with 18 kills. Brock added 17 kills and nine blocks. CSI setter Regan Harr finished with a double double of 57 assists and 13 digs.
The Golden Eagle outsides Wodke and Espinosa combined for 20 kills and 32 digs and libero Thompson added 16 digs.
Joining Luafalemana on the all tournament team was was Harr and Espinosa.
CSI head coach Heidi Cartisser earned NJCAA Coach of the Year honors. This championship is Cartisser's third national championship in 10 years at CSI.