Nov. 29, 2007- The Lindenwood women's volleyball team finished in second-place in Pool E at the NAIA National Championship with a 2-1 record. With that mark, the Lady Lions became just the second HAAC team in conference history to advance to the NAIA Quarterfinals.

The sixth-seed Lady Lions will face third-seed Concordia (Calif.) on Friday evening at 8:30 p.m. in the championship bracket quarterfinals. The Eagles are 29-5 on the season after finishing first in Pool C with a perfect 3-0 mark.

Lindenwood, which is now 41-7 on the year, clinched a spot in the tournament after just two matches with 3-1 wins over Savannah College of Art and Design and Bellevue. In the final match, the Lady Lions fell to National American by a 3-1 margin.

Lindenwood-3, Savannah Art & Design-1
Lindenwood won its 40th match of the season and picked up a victory in its first-ever NAIA Championship contest with a 3-1 win over Savannah College of Art and Design. The Lady Lions won by scores of 30-27, 23-30, 30-11, 30-25.

Lindenwood’s offense was the difference in the contest as it hit .340 in the match. The Lady Lions had 66 kills and just 15 hitting errors, compared to 56 kills and 26 errors for Savannah.

In game one, the two teams were evenly matched with neither team leading by more than three points. Lindenwood trailed 23-20 at one point, but a 6-1 run gave the team a 26-24 advantage. The Bees tied the game at 27, but the Lady Lions scored the final three points for the win. Erika Kliokmanaite’s kill gave the team a 28-27 lead, and then, with Kliokmanaite serving, Sarah Gildehaus finished the game with a pair of kills.

Game two was all Bees after about the midway point. Lindenwood led 10-9, but Savannah went on a 20-10 run for the easy game victory. The Bees hit .303 in that game, while Lindenwood only hit .091.

Likewise, game three was not close, but it was Lindenwood who dominated throughout. The deciding run was a 7-0 Lady Lions streak which gave them a 17-6 advantage. The Bees did not score a single point in that game off of their serve.

In the final game, Lindenwood never trailed although Savannah kept it close throughout. The play of the game came with the Bees on a 3-0 run which cut their deficit to 26-24. After a Lindenwood timeout, it went straight to Kliokmanaite who recorded a kill. She would go on and add two more kills as the Lady Lions won four of the final five points for the win.

The trio of Kliokmanaite, Gildehaus and Krista Yoder combined for 57 kills and a .374 hitting percentage. Kliokmanaite had a match-high 25 kills, Gildehaus had 19 and Yoder had 13.

Other team leaders were Clark with 48 assists, Showers with 18 digs, Monika Pfeiffer with three service aces, and Yoder, Kliokmanaite and Cara Hanevik with two blocks apiece.

Savannah had a balanced attack with five players recording eight or more kills. Cindy Stayton and Cristina Payne each had 11 to lead the team. Payne also collected five aces, and Heather Friend led the team with 20 digs.

Lindenwood-3, Bellevue-1
Lindenwood had to battle through another injury to a key player, but it came through once again with a 3-1 victory over Bellevue. The Lady Lions clinched a spot in the NAIA Quarterfinals with a 30-20, 30-27, 21-30, 30-27 victory.

Lindenwood won the first two games, but lost its top hitter, Erika Kliokmanaite, at the end of game two. Bellevue took advantage to win game three, but the Lady Lions used a team effort to capture the fourth game.

Lindenwood had two large runs to help it win game one. The first was a 6-0 run which helped it overcome an early 9-6 deficit. The other was 7-0 spurt which gave the Lady Lions a commanding 24-16 lead.

In the second game, the Lady Lions jumped out to a 5-0 lead and never trailed. The Bruins got within one point several times, the last coming at 27-26. A Krista Yoder kill and a Bellevue hitting error gave Lindenwood game point. On the next point, Kliokmanaite went down on a play at the net, but Jamie Meurer replaced her and got a kill for the game victory.

Game three had 13 ties early on, but Bellevue scored 14 of the final 17 points of the game for a nine-point win. The Lady Lions had a negative hitting percentage in their first game without Kliokmanaite.

In the fourth game, Lindenwood’s blocking gave it the victory. The score was tied at 17 when the Lady Lions went on a 6-2 run to take the lead. Three of those points came off of Lindenwood blocks. The team led 28-27 when a Bruin was called for in the net which took away a Bellevue kill. On match point, Yoder got her hand on an attack, and Bellevue never got it back over the net.

Yoder finished the game with a team-high 13 kills and a .414 hitting percentage. She also had two blocks and seven digs. Kliokmanaite had 12 kills, 10 digs and a .462 hitting percentage in just two games. Sarah Gildehaus finished with 10 kills and Annie Grohmann collected nine.

Setter Lisa Clark had 47 assists in the win. Libero Alyssa Showers had a team-high 16 digs, and Monika Pfeiffer was in double-figures with 10 digs. Jessica Bollinger and Gildehaus tied Yoder with two blocks in the match.

Bellevue was led by Rachel Muller who had 17 kills, followed by Leah Keller and Jennifer Horne with 14 apiece. Katy Gregory had a match-high 32 digs, and Candace Clow led the team with 46 assists.

National American-3, Lindenwood-1
Lindenwood played its final pool play match without its top hitter and starting setter, and the two players were greatly missed in a 3-1 loss to National American. The Mavericks won by scores of 30-18, 24-30, 30-18, 30-15.

The Lady Lions could never find a rhythm offensively as it had a negative hitting percentage for the contest. National American recorded 13 blocks and Lindenwood had a total of 32 hitting errors.

National American decided game one early on by opening up a 20-8 lead before the Lady Lions started to get things going a little bit. That improved play carried over to game two, when Lindenwood jumped out to a 9-3 lead and held on throughout the game.

The Lady Lions ran out of gas in game three though. With the score tied at seven, National American scored eight straight points to take control of that game. After Lindenwood scored the first two points of game four, the Mavericks scored 17 of the next 19 points to put the final game out of reach.

Cara Hanevik was the top offensive player with seven kills, followed by Jamie Meurer and Sarah Gildehaus with six apiece. In her first varsity action of the season, Andria Musson collected a team-high 17 assists.

Annie Grohmann had six blocks on the night to lead the team’s defense, and Hanevik added four other blocks. Brittany Tate had a team-high 14 digs, and Alyssa Showers was in double-figures with 10.

National American was led by Daniela Oliveira with 16 kills, 15 digs and three blocks.