The women's volleyball team successfully defended their Cal Pac Tournament title in dramatic fashion, with a 3-2 (25-23, 16-25, 26-24, 17-25, 15-11) victory over Benedictine University – Mesa. For the second consecutive year, the Golden Eagles (15-12) upset the #1 seed in the tournament and went on to win. Last year, the team defeated Embry-Riddle, the Cal Pac tournament champions the last two years, in the championship match. This year, La Sierra pulled the upset in the semifinal match on Thursday. Thursday's win set up a match-up between the #2 seed, Benedictine, and the #4 seed, La Sierra.
As the lower seed, the Golden Eagles were the visiting team despite the advantage of playing on their home court. But regardless of which side of the scoreboard their points were recorded, the Golden Eagles had one mission and that was to return to the NAIA National Tournament for the second consecutive year.
After jumping out to an early lead in Set 1, the Red Hawks were finally able to catch the Golden Eagles at 20-20. But La Sierra would never trail in the 25-23 win in the first set of the match.
The Red Hawks stormed back in a big way to even the match at 1-1 by taking Set 2 by a final score of 25-16. They trailed only once, at 2-1, and led by as many as 10 points before going on to win by the nine-point margin.
In what was arguably the most competitive set of the match, the two teams battled, resulting in 17 tie scores and six lead changes. The Golden Eagles had the largest lead during the set (19-16) and needed two set points to close things out and regain the match lead with a 26-24 win in Set 3.
But the Red Hawks weren't about to go quietly as they mounted another response similar to their answer in Set 2. In Set 4 they trailed only once were seemingly never in an danger of losing the set and tying the match at 2-2.
Heading to a dramatic final set, the tension was palpable, with everything on the line. It was Benedictine who carried over the momentum from their Set 4 win and took complete control, leading 8-4 as the two teams switched sides midway through Set 5.
The switch proved to be the turning point for the Golden Eagles who seemingly played with the wind at their back. La Sierra quickly erased the deficit to take a 9-8 lead with a 5-0 run. After the two teams jockeyed back and forth over the next few points, the Golden Eagles completed an 11-3 run to closeout the set and secure the match victory to punch their tickets to the NAIA National Tournament.
As part of the script, the team's lone senior stepped up to the challenge and carried her team over the finish line by picking up the decisive two points, on her 12th and 13th kills of the match. Fittingly, her final kill of her final home match was the championship point and equaled her jersey number.
Moran was one of four Golden Eagles who tallied double-figures in kills. Kiana Krumm had a team-high 17 kills. Michele Mendizabal added 15 kills, while Briana Greeley finished with 11 kills.
Emily Morgan had 38 of the team's 120 total digs. Krumm contributed 23 digs, while Daniella Alvarez had 17 digs, and Smriti Sharma added another 14 digs on the night.
Setters Marissa Fregoso (20) and Sharma (30) led La Sierra's offense and tallied a total of 50 assists in the winning effort.
Alexa Jimenez finished with a match-high 21 kills to lead Benedictine. They too, matched the Golden Eagles total of 120 digs in the match and out-blocked La Sierra 15-6.
While both teams picked up five service aces each, the Golden Eagles held a clear advantage by committing only two service errors on the night, compared to 10 service errors by Benedictine.
The team will now turn their attention to the NAIA National Tournament. They will wait until Monday morning, as the NAIA will announce the bracket via a live selection show, at 9am PST, to find out who their opponent is and where they will be traveling. Please check our social sites for updates.
