CSUDH Volleyball Takes Home Top Honor at 2nd Annual SAAC Talent Show

CARSON -- A spirited crowd of Cal State Dominguez Hills student-athletes, family, friends and administrators turned the Torodome into a makeshift CBS Studios last night as its Student-Athlete Advisory Committee hosted its 2nd Annual SAAC Talent Show, at which volleyball took home top honors and the accompanying hardware.

Following the format of the hit reality show "American Idol," the talent show featured guest judges in CSUDH Director of Athletics Patrick Guillen, CSUDH Athletics' Theresa Cuarenta and CSUDH women's basketball head coach Van Girard taking the roles of Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson, respectively.

After golf's Garrett Szubielski entertained the audience with his own prose and men's basketball's CJ Carter and Rashad Bias took turns mesmerizing the crowd with their respective renditions of Maxwell's "This Woman's Work" and Trey Songz's "I Refuse," Nikki Boutte, Ariana Caffey, Hillarie Perrin-Grant, Sherrie Hughes and Zipporah Brown from the women's basketball team performed a well-received skit that included Ashley Hudson playing the role of her head coach and guest judge, Van Girard, much to coach's delight.

Volleyball followed as SAAC President Shelbi Vopnford, Elizabeth Krieger, Elayne Greer, Abbey Prusa, Cassidy Mangum and Olivia White performed "Red Neck Woman," complete with an opening hummed rendition of the National Anthem and a tumbling routine.

Track and field combined with cross country for the next peformance as Dora Baldwin, Utopia Kates and Charlene Brown brought the crowd into a frenzy with their dance routine, while baseball's Ray Patchen closed the performances with a one-man rap rendition of his own work, with Pac Div's "Mayor" serving as the background instrumental.

Volleyball was awarded 1st place after garnering 88 of a possible 90 votes from the three judges, with women's basketball finishing runner-up with 86 points, and baseball earning 2nd runner-up honors with 82 points.

"It was a fantastic event for SAAC and all of our teams at Cal State Dominguez Hills," beamed an ecstatic Vopnford, still glowing from her volleyball team's victory.  "Not only did we all get to come together for a night and just let loose and have fun, we were able to raise some money for Make-A-Wish as well, which is icing on the cake."

During the event, donations were accepted on behalf of Make-A-Wish, the California Collegiate Athletic Association's charitable foundation.