The No. 15-ranked Sea Lions swept St. Ambrose in three tight sets in NAIA pool play action Thursday afternoon (25-23, 25-21, 30-28). The victory upped PLNU's pool play record to 2-1.
Fresno Pacific also defeated Olivet Nazarene in Pool A action Thursday, sending the Sea Lions to the tournament's final 12. PLNU plays a single-elimination round match Friday at 12:30 pm against Georgetown (KY). The winner of that contest advances to Friday's quarterfinals versus California Baptist at 8:00 pm (cst).
In the first set on Thursday, a kill from the Bees' Katelyn Lilienthal put St. Ambrose on the board, forcing PLNU to play catch up for most of the set. The Bees fought their way into an 18-12 lead, but the Sea Lions managed to catch up at 23-23, then overtake the team for set-point.
Maddie Dahms served her third in a row and
Tabitha Henken put the set away with a kill.
The Sea Lions started the second set trying to catch up as well, but managed to take a 10-9 lead with a kill from
Kylie Morel. Four consecutive points briefly gave the Bees the upper hand, but PLNU outscored SAU to take the set 25-21 for a 2-0 lead.
Point Loma took an early lead in the third set, which, aside from a brief 6-6 tie, it maintained until the Bees scraped together a tying point at 24-24 on a Sea Lions attack error. A kill from Lilienthal gave St. Ambrose its first lead of the set. SAU took its final lead of the season at 27-26, but Bees service error and a kill from Henken gave PLNU the lead.
St. Ambrose's final point tied it up 28-28, but back-to-back errors ended the Bee's season 30-28 in the final set.
The Sea Lions improved to 22-12 and the Bees, which went 0-3 in pool play, fell to 35-10. PLNU extended their non-GSAC opponent win streak to 31 games.
Henken was the kills leader for the Sea Lions with 15, followed by
Maddie Dahms with 12 and
Alyssa Pitkin with 11.
Kylie Morel had 24 assists and 16 digs and
Natalie Hamill had 15 assists and nine digs.
Nicole Eiler played tight defense with 23 digs.
No St. Ambrose players broke into double digits on kills, but Amy Royer led her team with nine. Lauren Alderman set for 24 assists and Dolores Wildner led on defense with 18 digs.
-Nathan Scharn
