TWIN FALLS - With the match on the line, the College of Southern Idaho sophomores stepped up and delivered Friday to lead the 3rd-ranked Eagles past 7th-ranked Snow College 25-16, 25-18, 21-25, 14-25, 15-10.
Early in the match,
Alycia Wodke put the team on her back. She posted 15 kills in the first two sets with just one error.Â
After Snow battled back behind its block to tie the match up at two sets apiece, Wodke, setter
Marija Djonovic, right side
Ashelyn Jones and libero
Luana Thompson showed the same resilence they had one year ago in leading the Golden Eagles to their 11th national championship.
Trailing 1-0 to start the fifth set, Djonovic tied it on kill. Wodke then had back-to-back kills to give CSI a lead it never relinquished.
Up 4-3, Jones put down a kill followed an ace by Wodke to make it 6-3. Both teams exchanged points until CSI was able to extend its lead to 11-6 on another kill by Wodke. After a Snow timeout and a point, Djonovic scored two straight points for CSI - one on a dump and one on an overpass kill.
The Badgers rallied as the Golden Eagles had a service error and attack error followed by a Snow kill to make it 13-10.
CSI called a timeout and finished off the match with kills by Wodke and
Jasmyn Keohohina-Malina.
In that set, Wodke had four kills and four digs; Jones posted three kills and one dig; Djonovic had three kills and 10 assists and Thompson had four digs.
More impressive perhaps was the complete match of Wodke. The sophomore outside hitter totaled 27 kills and 21 digs. Djonovic also shined with 41 assists, three kills and eight digs. And Thompson finished with 21 digs for the Golden Eagles.
CSI, now 22-4 overall and 6-0 in Scenic West Athletic Conference play, hosts College of Southern Nevada at 1 p.m. Saturday.