#1 stAte v. #2 ASU 1 PM ESPN3

[asu66]

Mountaineers celebrate their win over Texas State in the Sun Belt Tourney Semi-Finals. Above (Left to Right) are junior middle blocker Ashton Gregory (8), senior outside hitter Emily Corrigan, soph libero Olivia Loeffler (10), senior setter Paige Brown (12), senior outside hitter Jess Keller (32) and frosh middle blocker Alana Shoff (14).

The Arkansas State volleyball team swept defending champion UA-Little Rock to advance to title match of the 2015 Sun Belt Volleyball Championship. The Red Wolves will face No. 2 Appalachian State in the title game on Sunday at 1PM ET. The Mountaineers defeated No. 3 Texas State 3-1 to advance to the championship match.

The teams have faced each twice in the last two weeks; with stAte sweeping both matches. Nonetheless, App State is a dangerous opponent chomping at the bit for another shot at the Red Wolves with the Sun Belt's automatic berth in the NCAA Championship Tourney on the line.

Red Wolf DS/Libero Markie Schaedig, the 2014 and 2015 SBC Defensive Player of the Year suffered an undisclosed injury in the semi-final match and will not be available for the finals.

The match will air live on ESPN3 at 1 PM... http://espn.go.com/watchespn/index/_/id ... ampionship

LiveStats... http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=112109

[appbio91]

Good luck ladies!!! Hopefully we have seen them enough to find some weakness.

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[McLeansvilleAppFan]

Looks like Apps take set 1 28-26.

[appbio91]

APP up 2-0 over stAte

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[AppFan11]

Man... Keep it going... going to beat them when it counts!!!!!!

[McLeansvilleAppFan]

App took set 2 25-19. I am not sure what happened as I had to step away from the computer while at work, but Ark St took an early lead and App could not get the score tied. I look back at the score and I think App rattles off 7 or 8 straight points it would seem.

[McLeansvilleAppFan]

Drop set 3 18-25.

[McLeansvilleAppFan]

Drop set 4 21-25.

[BUTCH1991]

We're making too many service errors and informed errors, not to mention some controversial calls by the umpire. Just dropped set 4.

[AppFan11]

FOCUS and FINISH!!!!!!!!

[BUTCH1991]

Another bad call and we're down 7-5

[BUTCH1991]

Fall 15-12 in the 3rd. I hate stAte. Team never recovered from controversial call that gave stAte the lead.

[AppinVA]

Had trouble getting our first pass to the setter in the final set. Or, so my daughter pointed out.

[asu66]

Another bad call and we're down 7-5

stAte wins in five sets...Apps played well enough to win, but lost at least a half-dozen points on "homer" calls. It's an embarrassment to the Sun Belt for that to go unaddressed.

TerrIfic season for our ladies. They've made me very proud with their spirited play.

On the downside, stAte is reloading; but I fear Ginipro is going to be rebuilding. I've seen stAte's incoming recruits and compared them to ours. We're seriously not catching up unless Ginipro has better players on the way in his spring haul.

Hope we haven't taken two steps forward only to take three back.

None of that takes anything away from our 2015 team. They were awesome for most of the season and will live on in the ASU record book.

[YesAppCan]

Proud of the ladies!

[HeffnerIV]

Can someone elaborate on the bad calls?


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[YesAppCan]

Often involved "touches" on a kill that was going out of bounds. A couple "in the net" calls as well.

[AppFan11]

Girls had an outstanding season and pushed Arky in the final..... very nice job ladies......

[asu66]

From my shaky memory...and from LiveStats...

One in particular sticks in my craw. App freshman middle blocker Alana Shoff hit a "kill" shot over the net that was pretty clearly touched by a stAte player before it bounced just over the line. The umpire hesitantly ruled it out and awarded the point to stAte. This came after several other questionable calls that ended with all the points awarded to stAte. Our players were stoked up about it, and on this particular play in the fifth set, it gave stAte a two-point lead from which our team never recovered. Shoff completely lost it and made some effort to challenge the umpire. She was hit with a yellow card for "lack of decorum." That caused Coach Ginipro to further challenge the ump; and he was also hit with a yellow card. Our players played almost like they were in shock the rest of the way. The score went from 5-5 to 10-5 in stAte's favor in short order. Our ladies never recovered. stAte realized our team was stunned and turned up the pressure. Shortly, the score was 14-10. The Apps fought back to 14-12, but couldn't get it even. stAte got an emphatic kill on the next play to end the season for the Apps. Fifth set--stAte wins 15-12.

They have a somewhat deeper team than the Apps, but IMHO this win was tainted.

[JTApps1]

Another bad call and we're down 7-5

stAte wins in five sets...Apps played well enough to win, but lost at least a half-dozen points on "homer" calls. It's an embarrassment to the Sun Belt for that to go unaddressed.

TerrIfic season for our ladies. They've made me very proud with their spirited play.

On the downside, stAte is reloading; but I fear Ginipro is going to be rebuilding. I've seen stAte's incoming recruits and compared them to ours. We're seriously not catching up unless Ginipro has better players on the way in his spring haul.

Hope we haven't taken two steps forward only to take three back.

None of that takes anything away from our 2015 team. They were awesome for most of the season and will live on in the ASU record book.

It was bad enough that the announcers even said the stAte players were surprised to get some of the calls. This is becoming a trend in all sports especially when playing stAte. Its almost like the conference is doing all they can to protect the long standing teams. I've noticed this in games others have played against stAte and ULL as well. I guess we're "paying our dues."