Press Conference

TURLOCK -- Cal State LA's women's volleyball team had the makings of an incredible rally Friday in the semi-finals of the California Collegiate Athletic Association Championship Tournament.

The Golden Eagles, after a slow start put them in a deep 2-0 deficit, fought back for a third-set win and had a 23-19 lead in the fourth set before No. 1 Cal State San Bernardino responded to close out a hard-fought 25-8, 25-15, 14-25, 28-26 victory in the Ed and Bertha Fitzpatrick Arena at Stanislaus State.

Cal State LA (22-5) will now wait to find out if, as expected, the Golden Eagles are called on Sunday as one of the participants in the NCAA Tournament. The Golden Eagles were seeded third in the last regional rankings and are expected to reach the tournament for the first time since 2010. The announcement will be made on Sunday at 7 p.m. on ncaa.com.

Cal State San Bernardino (25-2) will play for the conference tournament championship on Saturday against Cal Poly Pomona.

The Golden Eagles lost to the Coyotes for the third time, but they overcame a dreadful start to make things quite interesting on Friday. After the Coyotes blitzed the Golden Eagles with hitting percentages of .682 and .435, Cal State LA limited the high-octane Cal State San Bernardino to percentages of .000 and .051 in the final two sets.

The Golden Eagles, on the other hand, hit at a negative percentage in the first set and .000 in the second, but hit at a .351 clip in their third-set win before hitting .043 in the tense fourth set.

Karla Santos had 11 kills and 15 digs for the Golden Eagles, while Daisy Crenshaw had 11 kills and four blocks. Mickayla Sherman had eight kills and five digs.

Alexis Cardoza had a match-high 20 kills for the Coyotes.

Kelsey Molnar had 27 set assists, 10 digs, four service aces and three blocks for Cal State LA, while Jeshmarie Suarez had 12 digs.

Cal State San Bernardino had a 44-39 edge in kills and hit at a .233 percentage to .099 for the Golden Eagles. The Coyotes had a narrow 8-7 edge in blocks and both teams had eight service aces.

After dropping the first two sets by big margins, the Golden Eagles turned the tables with a lopsided win in the third. Santos heated up with six kills in the frame and Cal State LA took momentum into the fourth set.

The fourth set was easily the most competitive of the match and the Golden Eagles put themselves in position to force a fifth and deciding frame. A kill by Sherman and a bad set by the Coyotes gave the Golden Eagles a 23-19 lead. Cardoza, though, delivered four consecutive kills after a service error to give the Coyotes their first match point at 24-23. Kills by Santos and Molnar saved two match points, but the Coyotes got the final two points to close out the contest.

The Golden Eagles will now wait until Sunday to find their NCAA tourney seed and the location of the West Regional.