Riverside, Calif. - The women's volleyball team pushed their winning streak to three matches with today's two-match sweep of UC Santa Cruz and Chapman University. The Golden Eagles defeated the Banana Slugs in straight sets (27-25, 25-21, 25-14) in the opening match and followed that up with a straight set victory over the Panthers (25-20, 25-17, 25-16).
La Sierra vs UC Santa Cruz
In the first match of the day the Golden Eagles faced UC Santa Cruz in a non-conference match. In the first two sets of the match, La Sierra was forced to dig themselves out of early deficits. In Set 1, the Golden Eagles were slow out of the blocks and had to overcome an 11-3 deficit to start the match. While they were able to chip away at the lead, the Slugs extended it back to an 8-point lead, at 20-12, in the latter half of Set 1. But a 12-4 run, by the Golden Eagles, tied the set at 24-24; as La Sierra would go on to score three of the next four points to steal the first set.
Similar to Set 1, the Slugs once again jumped out to the early lead in Set 2 by scoring the first six points. Santa Cruz held the lead until the Golden Eagles caught them at 11-11, at which point the set became a back-and-forth affair. But a 4-0 run, by La Sierra, with the set tied at 14-14 proved to be the difference, as the Slugs never got closer than four points for the remainder of the set.
Seizing the momentum from the first two sets, the Golden Eagles cruised to victory in Set 3, 25-14, and take the match in straight sets.
Taylor Moran and Kiana Krumm led the team with 10 kills each. Moran boasted an impressive hitting percentage of .375 with only one error on 24 total attempts. Michele Mendizabal added eight kills, with Kiana Velasco pitching in with five kills.
Libero Emily Morgan led the team with 14 digs, while setters Marissa Fregoso and Smriti Sharma finished with 15 assists and eight digs, and 13 assists and six digs, respectively.
The Golden Eagles tallied 15 service aces in the match, with Sharma leading the way with five aces and Mendizabal close behind with four aces of her own.
La Sierra vs Chapman
The second match featured another non-conference opponent in Chapman University. It was the first meeting between the two programs since 2008, when the Panthers defeated La Sierra in both meetings that season. But the Golden Eagles took a first step towards flipping that script with a 3-0 victory over the Panthers.
La Sierra finished with a stellar hitting percentage of .371, with 46 kills on 105 total attempts, against only seven hitting errors. Krumm led the team with 15 kills to go along with nine digs and four aces. Moran had another strong match with nine kills with no errors on 18 attempts, in addition to three block assists and two solo blocks Mendizabal tallied eight kills and three block assists.
Morgan had another steady match with 15 digs, four assists, and two service aces. Fregoso added 21 assists and eight digs, while Sharma contributed 17 assists and six digs.
The women's volleyball team has now won six of their last seven matches to propel their overall record over the .500 mark for the first time this season, at 6-5. The team will complete a 7-match home stand this Tuesday night, with another non-conference match against San Diego Christian College. Tuesday's match is scheduled for a 7pm start, after which the team will embark on the road for three straight matches starting this weekend with conference matches at Benedictine University (Mesa, Ariz.) and Embry-Riddle University (Prescott, Ariz.), on Friday and Saturday.
