Fueled by 25 kills from Tabitha Henken, the NAIA No. 10-ranked Sea Lions stunned No. 2 Concordia in five sets Saturday night (26-24, 24-26, 25-22, 18-25 and 15-9). The PLNU win snapped a nine-game losing skid to the Eagles, postseason included. The last time that the Sea Lions came out on top against CUI was September 24, 2005.
 
The young PLNU team, with only two upper classmen on the roster, improved to 5-3 in the Golden State Athletic Conference and 15-3 overall.  The Eagles, whose only other loss was to No. 1 Fresno Pacific, fell to 6-2 in conference play and 19-2 overall.
 
The Sea Lions managed the win despite getting beaten on kills 65-57, assists 57-48 and digs 74-70. PLNU also committed 11 service errors to Concordia's eight. But 12 blocks, compared with CUI's six, and hitting percentage .017 better than the Eagles gave the Sea Lions the presence at the net needed to defeat the team voted second best in the nation.
 
Things didn't look good for PLNU early in the first set, as they were outscored 5-1 early on. The Sea Lions trailed throughout the teens before catching up at 22-22. Despite two Eagles' kills, a pair of CUI errors, a service ace from Chelsea Joanou and a kill from Alyssa Pitkin gave PLNU the extra-point victory 26-24.
 
The second set went the other way for Point Loma. They matched the Eagles all the way, from 1-1 to 24-24. However, Concordia picked up the last two points to seal the second set 26-24.
 
The Sea Lions nearly led the third set from beginning to end, but CUI tied things up at 21-21, and took the lead on a PLNU attack error. The Sea Lions fought back with four unanswered points, three on errors from the Eagles, winning 25-22.
 
The teams kept trading sets, as the Eagles led the entire fourth to force a fifth and deciding set. Concordia outscored Point Loma 7-3 in the final 10 points to win by the biggest margin of victory in the match, 25-18.
 
PLNU jumped into a 7-1 lead in the final set, of which five Sea Lions points came from CUI errors. Concordia almost caught up, inching up to 7-5, but the Sea Lions arrived at match point on an Eagles' service error. Maddie Dahms put the match away 15-9 with her twelfth kill.
 
Alyssa Pitkin was also in double digits for the Sea Lions, adding 12 kills and 12 digs. Kylie Morel had 25 assists and 13 digs and libero Nicole Eiler had 16 digs. Henken also contributed 15 digs.
 
The Eagles had four in double digits on kills, led by Stephanie Darnall with 18, Amber Ridens with 17, Cassie Ells with 11 and Brooke Marino with 10. Vanessa Perry had 32 assists. Darnall had 20 digs and Chelsea Scott had 19.
 
The Sea Lions host No. 25 Vanguard University at 7 p.m. Tuesday.


-Nathan Scharn