COLUMBIA, Mo. – The magical season for the Lewis-Clark State College volleyball team came to an end Thursday when the NAIA’s No. 2-ranked team California-Baptist swept the Warriors 30-23, 30-15, 30-19 in pool play at the NAIA National Tournament at Columbia College.

The Warriors finished 1-2 in pool play and saw their remarkable season come to an end at 26-8.

Only the top two teams from each of the five four-team pools advance to bracket play. California-Baptist won LCSC’s pool with a 3-0 record, while Texas-Brownsville went 2-1. Virginia-Wise went 0-3, which included a 30-17, 30-17, 30-19 loss to LCSC early Thursday morning.

The Warriors entered the California-Baptist match knowing they needed a win to keep their season going. LCSC actually led early in all three games, but California Baptist, 30-4, came on strong midway through each game and pulled away.

“They’re a great team and a lot of credit goes to them,” LCSC coach Jen Greeny said of the Lancers, “but we fought hard and gave it our all.”

In the opening game, the Warriors led 9-7 and 10-9, but Cal-Baptist got thing goings and eventually led 25-19 and 27-20 in claiming the win. The second and third games followed pretty much the same pattern. In the third game, LCSC led 11-10, but the Lancers scored the next eight points and eventually took a 25-15 advantage to claim the sweep.

“Of course it’s always tough to end the season, but you wouldn’t want to end it anywhere else but at the national tournament,” Greeny said. “We would have liked to have made it through pool play, but I’m really proud of the girls.”

For the match, Cal-Baptist hit .333 and had 58 kills, 57 assists, 57 digs, and seven blocks. LCSC hit .118, had 32 assists, 38 digs, and six blocks.

Veranie Willis led Cal-Baptist with 18 kills, while Shi Fei and Yudelka Bonilla, added 16 and 14 kills respectively.

The Warriors were paced by sophomore Anile Clemente’s 12 kills, while junior Cintia Alessi added 11. Junior Julie Maciboba added six kills as the three players combined for all but three of LCSC’s 32 kills in the match. Clemente continued her strong tournament showing with a .321 hitting percentage.

Lisa Davis led LCSC with 13 assists, while Mindy Meyer added eight. Lindsay Scott had 12 digs, while Meyer added nine and Katie Hinrichs had eight.

Against Virginia-Wise, the Warriors dominated play in the match that began at 7 a.m., PDT.

“We just played a little more relaxed,” Greeny said. “We just played better and limited our unforced errors.”

The Warriors hit .337 for the match and had 12 blocks, compared to 4.5 for the Cavaliers, who are appearing in their first national volleyball tournament.

Clemente led the Warriors with 12 kills, while Maciboba added seven. Dana Christiansen and Alessia had six kills each, while Brittney Kubik and Marie Balmer had five each.

Davis had 22 assists, while Meyer added 20. Alessi added three service aces, while Scott had 13 of the team’s 45 digs. Kubik led the blocking with three.

Every Warrior played in at least two games in the match.

This was LCSC’s eighth appearance at the national tournament. The previous seven tournament appearances came in 1988, 1989, 1994, and 1996-99. LCSC’s best finish in the tournament was making it to the semifinals in 1998. LCSC has an all-time record of 16-17 at the national tournament.

“I am proud of the girls,” Greeny said. “To be picked to finish sixth (in the conference in the preseason coaches’ poll) and make it to the national tournament, I can’t say enough about the job they did this season. I am so proud of them.”

The Warriors will fly home on Saturday and are expected to arrive at the Spokane airport at 9 p.m. and then arrive at the LCSC Activity Center around midnight.