Aggies fall to ACU in LSC championship
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LAWTON, Okla. (Nov. 13)
- The Cameron volleyball team need a repeat performance of its
semifinal win in the Lone Star Conference championship match against
Abilene Christian on Saturday. What it got was something
less.
ACU
made the most of its first conference title match appearance, limiting the
Aggies to a .037 hitting percentage to win the league crown in straight
sets. The Wildcats (28-7) won by scores of 30-18, 30-25, 30-23, to capture
the school's first LSC women's volleyball
championship.
Saturday's loss ended the season
for the Aggies (20-12) and ended the coaching career of Cameron head coach Kim
Vinson, who earlier this year announced that 2004 would be her final
season.
The
Aggies struggled offensively throughout the night, hampered by a stingy ACU
defense that produced 11 blocks and racked up 76 digs. Cameron posted team
hitting percentages below .050 in each of the three sets and no Aggie player
registered more than seven kills.
Abilene Christian dominated every
phase of the match statistically, getting 50 kills to Cameron's 29, 48 assists
to the Aggies' 24 and owning a convincing 76-48 advantage in
digs.
"(Abilene Christian) did exactly
what we did last night (against Angelo State)," Vinson said. "They came out
focused and never lost that focus. They served aggressively and played with
confidence and deserve to be called conference
champions."
The
teams traded points early in each of the three sets before Abilene used several
scoring spurts to take control. In the first frame, the Wildcats capitalized on
Cameron miscues to build a 21-13 lead. In the second, the teams were deadlocked
at 14-14 before a 5-0 run gave ACU all the cushion it needed. The Aggies got
within two at 25-27 on a service ace by Jenny Head and a Nicole Reinhart kill.
But Abilene Christian scored the final three points of the set to take a 2-0
match lead.
The
final set saw the teams battle to a 7-all tie before the Wildcats broke it open
with a 9-2 run capped by a Michelle Bernhardt service ace. Cameron tried to get
back into the match late, forging a 7-3 run on three straight points by Taran
Turner to make it 23-28. But Abbie Lowry's kill sent the score to match point
and Ashlee Motola put down the final kill to give ACU the match and the league
title.
Saturday's match was Cameron's
fourth appearance in the LSC title tilt. The Aggies won the crown in their first
trip to the finals in 1998, knocking off defending national champion West Texas
A&M. The same two teams met for the championship the following two seasons,
with the Lady Buffs winning the first two of five consecutive tournament
titles.
Saturday's loss ended the careers of three Aggie
seniors: Grande Prairie, Alberta, libero Jenny Head; Alvin, Texas, outside
hitter Morgan Meyer; and Rosalind, Alberta, middle blocker
Nicole Reinhart. Head and Reinhart were each named to the all-tournament team
Saturday night.
Vinson ends her career with 446
coaching victories to her credit, including 269 in 15 seasons at Cameron. She is
a three-time LSC North Division Coach of the Year and is favored to claim her
fourth divisional award later this month.
Here
is the text of a postgame awards presentation honoring Vinson's service to the
Aggie Volleyball program:
"Ladies and gentlemen,
at this time, Cameron University and the Aggie Volleyball team would
like to recognize an individual who has been the heart and soul of Aggie
Volleyball for the past 15 years....
Head Coach Kim Vinson
has won 269 matches, including 102 of them right here at Aggie Gym, in 15
seasons at Cameron University. This August, Coach Vinson announced that 2004
would be her final year as the Aggie skipper, turning over a program she helped
establish as one of the top teams in the NCAA Division II’s Southwest Region.
Under her direction,
the 1998 Cameron squad claimed its first-ever Lone Star Conference North
Division title, as well as the Lone Star Conference Tournament Championship,
upsetting defending national champion West Texas A&M in the title match here
at Aggie Gym. The team also earned its first-ever NCAA postseason appearance
that year and made a return trip to the Division II Southwest Regional
Championships in 2001.
This year, Vinson has
guided the Aggies to their sixth 20-win season in the last seven years and is
the odds-on favorite to be honored later this month with her fourth Lone Star
Conference North Division Coach of the Year award.
She has guided the
Aggies to five Lone Star Conference North Division regular season crowns,
including a second consecutive divisional title this season and while at
Hardin-Simmons University before joining the Cameron program, she was named the
1984 NAIA national Co-Coach of the Year.
In 21 years as a
collegiate volleyball coach, Kim Vinson has won nearly 450 matches while
directing the efforts of numerous All-Conference, All-Region and All-America
players. Though she will remain on the Aggie staff as Cameron’s Assistant
Athletic Director, Senior Woman’s Administrator and NCAA Compliance Coordinator,
her dedication to the Aggie Volleyball program and her presence on the court at
Aggie Gym, will surely be missed.
Ladies and gentlemen,
please join Cameron University and the Aggie volleyball team in congratulating
Coach Kim Vinson on a truly outstanding coaching
career!"
