Riverside, Calif. - The women's volleyball team won their fourth straight match tonight, in a 3-2 victory (26-24, 19-25, 26-24, 8-25, 15-9) over San Diego Christian College. The Golden Eagles have now won seven of their last eight matches, to improve to 7-5 on the season. Tuesday's match was also the final match of a 7-game home stand.
In Set 1, the Hawks battled back from a 12-7 deficit and actually had a set point (24-23), but the Golden Eagles scored three straight points to take Set 1, 26-24.
The Hawks evened the match with a 25-19 win in Set 2, followed up by another narrow victory for the Golden Eagles in Set 3, 26-24. It was another comeback by the Hawks that made Set 3 interesting. After trailing by as many as seven points (12-5), San Diego Christian used a 15-8 scoring run to catch La Sierra at 20-20. Similar to Set 1, the Hawks were one point away from winning the set, but were unable to close the door, allowing the Golden Eagles to slip by for the 2-1 lead in the match.
But the Hawks answered back in a big way by cruising to a 25-8 win in Set 4, sending the match to a decisive set. The final set was tightly contested through, with neither team holding more than a one point lead until the Golden Eagles pushed out to a 9-7 lead after the two teams switched sides. After the switchover, La Sierra would outscore the Hawks 7-2 to secure the victory.
The Golden Eagles had three players who tallied double figures in total kills for the match. Outside hitter Michele Mendizabal led the team with 19 kills. Kiana Krumm finished with 16 kills, while Taylor Moran added 12 kills against only one error on 29 attempts for a team high hitting percentage of .379.
Smriti Sharma and Marissa Fregoso ran the offense with an efficient 27 assists and 24 assists, respectively. Libero Emily Morgan led the team with 29 digs, while Krumm chipped in defensively with 12 digs of her own. Right behind Krumm was Fregoso who contributed defensively as well with nine of the team's 76 total digs.
The Golden Eagles were able to overcome their woes at the service line as they had a season-high 16 service errors, in addition to being out-blocked by a margin of 12-3.
The team will now take their winning streak on the road as they jump back into Cal Pac play this weekend. On Friday, the team will play Benedictine University – Mesa (4-0, 11-2), followed by Saturday night's match at Embry-Riddle University (4-0, 11-3). These three teams currently sit atop the conference standings and remain the only unbeaten teams in Cal Pac play.
