BOX SCORE | PHOTOS

SAN DIEGO – Fueled by 26 kills from junior All-American Tabitha Henken, the NAIA No. 25-ranked Sea Lions pulled off the upset of the year so far, sweeping No. 7 Concordia Saturday afternoon in Golden Gym (25-19, 31-29, 25-19).

Point Loma has now won four straight GSAC matches and seems to be past the slow start that saw the team drop below .500 and out of the NAIA rankings. With the win Saturday the Sea Lions improved to 11-6 overall, 5-3 in conference play.

“We are playing much better than we were at the start of the year," said head coach Rochelle Short. "But we still have some work to do. Sometimes we have trouble finishing and one of our starters is sitting with an injury. All the teams are playing better as the year goes on. We have to continue to improve along with them."

The Sea Lions played well in all aspects of the game against CUI, hitting a solid .276 and pressing the action by hammering 50 kills off of 44 assists. The Green and Gold also played well defensively, collecting 61 digs and blocking five shots.

Importantly, PLNU did not give away too many points, making just 13 hitting errors and only five service aces.

"Our offense was on fire, our defense was great and we had a lot of fun," said setter/rightside hitter Aimee Bird. "This is the best we have played all year. It feels great to beat a team as good as they are."

PLNU set the tone by charging out of the gate in the first set and taking a 5-2 lead. The Eagles clawed back to within a point, but the Sea Lions took firm control of the set in the middle points, going up 22-13 and holding off a late CUI charge.

The second set looked like a repeat of the first except that the Eagles didn't wait too long for a rally, erasing a four-point deficit to take a 21-20 lead. Concordia served for the set three times but could not close the deal, however. PLNU also served for set point three times without success until Bird finished things off with a kill.

CUI took an early lead in the third until a 14-5 run pushed the Sea Lions ahead 21-14. The Eagles put together a last gasp but could stave off defeat.

“This was a big game for both teams,” said Short. “We really needed this one to move us up in conference and the rankings. This was a very good win for us.”

Henken has been playing at a high level all year. The outside hitter who leads the NAIA in kills per game blasted 26 winners off of 53 swings for a .472 average. She also had 12 digs.

Maddie Dahms and Alyssa Dwyer each contributed eight kills to the win with Karleigh Kaczmarek adding five winners. Bird and Natalie Hamill combined on 44 assists and 37 digs from the setter position.

Brooke Marion led CUI with 14 kills. Amber Ridens had 13 kills in the loss. The Eagles hit .240 to go with 65 digs and 40 assists. Concordia hurt itself by making 10 service errors.

The Eagles fell to 13-3, 5-3 GSAC.

PLNU travels to Vanguard on Tuesday for a 7:00 pm match.