Costa Mesa, Calif. - The women's volleyball team played their first of two matches, at the Vanguard University Tournament, in search of their first victory of the season. The Golden Eagles dropped the match in straight sets, to No. 19 The Master's College, 25-23, 22-25, 26-24.
This was the second meeting between the two schools in the last seven days. The Mustangs defeated the Golden Eagles in straight sets last Friday afternoon at the Asics/Wyndham Labor Day Tournament, played at Concordia University.
Today's contest proved to be a more tightly played match than the first meeting. In the first set, Lina Semaia tallied one of her two service aces to increase the Golden Eagles lead to 22-20. But the Mustangs answered with a 5-1 run to close out the first set.
In the second set, the Golden Eagles found themselves playing catch-up for the majority of the way. After clawing their way back to tie the score at 9-9, midway through the set, the Mustangs used a 9-1 run to push their lead to a comfortable 18-10 margin. La Sierra showed some character and fought back again, cutting the lead to 22-24, but ultimately ran out of time, losing the set 25-22.
The third set was tightly contested from start to finish. The Mustangs used a 5-1 run, pushing their lead to 17-13. They extended their lead to 20-15 on a service error by the Golden Eagles. But La Sierra was not about to go quietly. They would answer with a 9-3 run of their own and had a chance to take the set and extend the match, leading 24-23. But the Mustangs regrouped just in time to run off three straight points and close the match out on a kill by Morgan Koch.
La Sierra didn't help themselves from the service line, as they finished with 13 service errors compared to eight service aces. The Mustangs, in comparison, had 10 service aces against 7 service errors.
Senior outside hitter Lina Semaia finished with a match high 13 kils and added 11 digs, three solo blocks and a block assist in the match. Robyn Miller added nine kills, seven digs, and a team high three service aces. Erin Miller tallied nine kills and seven digs, while Chantel Washington contributed a match high 14 digs for the Golden Eagles. Setter Angie Gonzales finished with 25 assists and 12 digs in the effort.
The women's volleyball team, now 0-5 on the season, will continue their tough non-conference schedule tomorrow night, with their second of two matches at the Vanguard University Tournament. They will face the host school and No. 22 ranked team in the nation, Vanguard University, starting at 7:30pm. Tomorrow night's match will be broadcast live, free of charge, at the following link http://portal.stretchinternet.com/vanguard/
