Issue date: 11/15/07 Section: 2007 South Central Regional

The University of Central Missouri did it again.

A year after they knocked the University of West Florida out of the 2006 NCAA tournament in second round, the Jennies bounced the Argonauts from of the tournament once again.

In Thursday's first match of the South Central Region, No. 6 Central upset No. 3 West Florida 3-1 (-27, 27-30, -25, -27) to advance to Friday's regional semifinals match. The Jennies (31-5) will face either No. 2 Washburn University or No. 7 University of West Georgia.

Central Missouri entered the tournament suffering from a loss in the first round of the MIAA tournament, which played a factor in its getting a six seed in the region.

Central's head coach Peggy Martin said it was important to see her team respond with a strong start in the national tournament after losing 3-0 to Pittsburg State University in the MIAA's first round.

"I think we walked in wounded to start the match," Martin said. "… We had to start to believe in ourselves again. I don't mean physically wounded, but we were hurting after that [MIAA tournament] match. And it took a very strong group of people to come back and play as well as we did today."

Martin also said receiving the sixth seed in the region provided extra motivation.

"We think we're better than the sixth team in this [region], and I think we've proven that now," she said.

West Florida (32-7) lost its final two matches and three of its last five to end the 2007 campaign. The Argonauts pulled off an upset victory as a No. 7 seed in the opening round of the 2006 national tournament before losing to Central Missouri in the second round. But they could prevail Thursday as the higher-ranked seed.

West Florida's head coach Melissa Wolter, who watched Central defeat her team in five games at nationals last year, said the Jennies ball control keyed their success.

"They control everything, and they force you to get into long rallies" Wolter said. "And today they blocked pretty well, which hurt us. We haven't played a whole lot of teams this year who win the blocking game against us."

Senior outside hitter Amber Yoder led the Jennies attack with 17 kills. Yoder helped Central stage a 1-0 lead after compiling seven kills in the opening game.

Continued...

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