Nov. 18, 2000
Arizona State waits for announcement of NCAA Tournament to see if 2000 season continues.
TUCSON, Ariz. - Behind senior outside hitter Allison Napier's 34 kills, the University of Arizona Wildcats clinched their first Pac-10 volleyball championship with a 3-1 victory over the Arizona State Sun Devils Saturday night in front of 3,550 fans at McKale Center.
The 12-15, 15-10, 15-8, 15-7 victory improved the No. 5 Wildcats to 24-3 on the year and clinched a share of the 2000 Pac-10 championship with USC by posting a 16-2 conference record. Arizona receives the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament by winning more games in head-to-head action vs. the Trojans. Arizona State finished the 2000 regular season 17-11 and with a 9-9 record in Pac-10 play are tied for fifth place in the conference with Washington State. The Sun Devils, along with USC, UCLA, Arizona, WSU and Stanford are all expected to advance to postseason play. The Pac-10 title by Arizona marks the first time in conference history (since 1986) that a school other than Stanford or UCLA has been crowned the Pac-10 champion.
ASU's senior outside hitter Amanda Burbridge (Scottsdale) finished her amazing regular season in style with 26 kills and 18 digs. She maintained her streak of recording at least double-digits in kills in each of her 26 matches played. The senior also tallied her 21st double-double, 17th match with over 20 kills and 21st match with at least double-digits in digs. With the 26 kills, Burbridge set the school record for kills in a season with 563. She passed former ASU associate head coach Mindy Gowell-Rich, who had 555 in 1990. Burbridge remains in third place in the ASU record books with 1,561 career kills.
Junior Jami Coughlin (Glendale) tallied 21 kills for ASU and senior Michelle Mortensen (Chandler) added 11. Freshman outside hitter Natalie Harris (Tempe) contributed a solid match with five kills and two service aces off the bench.
Napier's (Santa Ana, Calif.) 34 kills bettered her career high of 29 set earlier this year vs. UCLA. The mark ties for the third most in Arizona volleyball history. Junior setter Dana Burkholder controlled the Arizona offense with 62 assists and added 18 digs.
The Sun Devils opened the match with a 15-12 win, continuing a season-long trend in which ASU won 22 of 28 first games in 2000. The 15-12 win was fueled by a stretch of six unanswered points that helped stake the Sun Devils to a 13-7 lead. After the Wildcats battled back to within one at 13-12, the Sun Devils put the game away with key play from freshman defensive specialist Courtney Blocher (Scottsdale). Blocher had a key dig that led to ASU's 14th point and served an ace to put game one in the books. Burbridge led ASU with six kills in the first frame. Napier recorded 10 kills to lead all players in the first game.
Arizona won a marathon game two that lasted close to 45 minutes by a score of 15-10. Burbridge added 11 more kills in the second game, while Coughlin had eight. The Wildcats out-hit the Sun Devils .254 to .194 in the second game, with the two teams combining for 139 total attacks.
After falling behind 10-1 in game three, ASU battled back bring the game to 14-8, but the Wildcats put the game away 15-8 to go up 2-1 on the Sun Devils. Arizona controlled game four from the start and finished the match with a 15-7 win to clinch their third season sweep of ASU in the last four years.
| ASU (17-11) | 15 | 10 | 8 | 7 |
| ARIZ (24-3) | 12 | 15 | 15 | 15 |
ASU Statistical Leaders:
KILLS: Burbridge (26)
ASSISTS: Anglin (57)
DIGS: Burbridge (18), Coughlin (14), Harris (13)
BLOCKS: Leddy (4)
SERVICE ACES: Harris (2), Blocher (2)
Attendance: 3,550