VOLLEYBALL (M)

4/22/10 - Royals Shocked Out Of Nationals

By Tim Gooszen

Davenport, IA- In a shocking upset, Hope International has been ousted out of the NAIA National Invitational with two losses in pool play.  In the opening match of the tournament, the #2 seeded Royals met up with #5 seeded Cardinal Stritch and fell in four (30-22, 30-21, 28-30, 30-28).  In the afternoon, the Royals took on the host- #4 seeded St. Ambrose- and were defeated 3-0 (30-26, 30-28, 30-25).  Sophomore Kaimi Guerreiro, the only Royal to reach double digit kills in both matches, finished with 26 kills combined.

In the opening match against the Wolves, the Royals briefly saw the lead at 7-6 and 8-6.  But after tying the score at 8-8, the Wolves surged ahead did not allow Hope International to even tie the score again.  The second set saw the early lead go in favor of the Royals but by 5-4 the Wolves secured the lead for good.

Then came the marathon third set which featured 20 ties and 7 lead changes.  With the score tied at 27-27, the Royals took three of the final four points with Freshman Johannes Fuchs providing the kill for the final point of the set.

The fourth and final set did not have as many ties and lead changes but once again came down to the end.  The Royals actually led 27-25 but four straight attack errors by four different Royals put the Wolves in the driver’s seat and they closed out the match two points later.

Senior Alex Figueiredo, playing in what turned out to be his final day in a Royals uniform, had 17 kills and 4 blocks as Guerreiro added 15 kills.  Junior Danilo Pereira had 44 assists.  Sophomore Henry Valiente led the defense with 10 digs.

Now facing a must win situation, the Royals faced off with the hometown favorites, the Fighting Bees, in their first match of the tournament.  As it turns out, the Royals had no answers for their fresh legs.

The Bees jumped out to a 14-7 lead to open the first set.   But the Royals came storming back and used an 11-3 run to take an 18-17 lead.  The lead stayed in the favor of the Royals or the set was tied until 25 all.  But three hitting errors by the Royals allowed the Bees to use a 5-1 run to close out the opening set.

It appeared the Royals finally found their hitting groove to open the second set as they jumped out to an 8-4 lead on the strength of five kills from five different Royals.  Unfortunately, after a see saw middle part of the set, the Bees took the lead at 20-19 and held off the Royals to win the second set 30-28.

The third and final set opened with the Royals taking a 3-0 lead with Valiente burying a service ace in that run.  The Bees rattled off three straight points to tie the set but a kill by Guerreiro gave the Royals back the lead at 4-3.  Little did the Royals know that would be the final lead they would see in the 2010 season.  Once the lead reach five points for St. Ambrose that is basically where the point differential stayed the rest of the set.

While Guerreiro had a team high 11 kills, Fuchs was really the Royal consistently doing much as he finished with 10 kills on 22 attempts with just 2 errors (.364).  Pereira was only able to muster 28 assists.  Senior Noah Casaquit, also playing his final day in a Royals uniform, finished the match with 11 of his 19 digs for the day.

Hitting was the main issue for the Royals all day as they managed to hit just .167 combined in the two matches.  Meanwhile the Wolves and Bees combined to .367 against the Royals.

With the two losses, the Royals finish the year at 13-11.

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