POMONA, Calif.---The Stan State Warriors (21-7) played in the CCAA Championship Tournament semifinals tonight, facing the second seed #20 San Francisco State (21-6). Stan State won the match 3-1 (25-21,15-25,25-23, 25-18), heading to the CCAA Championship finals for the first time in program history. This win marks their sixth win in a row with five of them being sweeps.
 
FIRST SET: Despite a rough start to the set, down 6-0, the Warriors began to battle back with kills from Ellison Weaver and Autumn Kirby. Three spikes from Makenna Carrillo brought Stan State to a tie at 18-18, and a block by Autumn Kirby and Makenna Carrillo brought the Warriors to their first lead in the set. With two more blocks and kills from Ellison Weaver, Stan State finished the set 25-21.
 
SECOND SET: Stan State carried their momentum from the first set into the second, but San Francisco State was not interested in going down easy. The Gators flipped the score with back-to-back kills and a handful of service aces, taking the set 25-15.
 
THIRD SET: San Francisco State continued their run going into the third set, taking an early 8-3 lead. Stan State slowly climbed back after taking a timeout, bringing the score to 13-14 with kills from Alex Byrd and Ellison Weaver, and caused the Gators to take a timeout of their own. From there the Warriors continued to push for the lead, tying the score with a kill from Isabella Saucedo and pushing the lead with solo block from Saucedo two points later, enabling to claim the set 25-23.
 
FOURTH SET: Points were traded early between the teams, before Stan State went on a six-point run off Shaelyn Pruiett's serve, with two of those points being service aces. The Warriors maintained this lead throughout the entire set, with two blocks and three kills from three different hitters in Isabella Saucedo, Makenna Carrillo, and Ellison Weaver, allowing them to claim the set and match 25-18.
 
FIRST APPEARANCE: The 2024 Warriors entered the tournament as the winningest team in program history and continue to break program records. With this win, Stan State heads to the finals of the CCAA Championship tournament for the first time in program history. The furthest they have made was the semifinals in 2016, where they fell to Chico State.
 
BIG NUMBERS: Shaelyn Pruiett had another great performance with eight digs, five service aces, and 15 assists. Ellison Weaver recorded a double-double with 14 kills and 14 digs, hitting .293 on the day. The team recorded nine blocks with Alex Byrd combining for six of them and one solo block by Isabella Saucedo.
 
NCAA TOURNAMENT: The conference tournament winners will advance to the NCAA DII Championship, with the rest of the field coming from at-large bids. The West region is made up of the PacWest, GNAC, and CCAA conferences, meaning there will be five at-large bids for the region. The NCAA selection show will be air Monday, November 25^th at 4:30 p.m. on the NCAA website.
 
UP NEXT: The Warriors play in the finals tomorrow, Saturday, November 23^rd, facing the fourth seed RV Cal State Los Angeles. The match is scheduled to begin at 5:00 p.m. Stan State played Cal State Los Angeles once this year on October 11^th on the Golden Eagle's territory, claiming the win 3-2 (25-20, 18-25,17-25, 25-22, 15-12).