BOX SCORE | PHOTOS

SAN DIEGO - Tabitha Henken and Maddie Dahms combined for 30 of PLNU's 49 kills Tuesday night to lead the No. 19-ranked Sea Lions to a sweep over Vanguard (25-21, 26-24, 25-23).

The win was an important one for the Green and Gold which had lost five of its previous seven matches and slipped into sixth in the GSAC standings. PLNU needs to be ranked high enough when the regular season ends on Saturday to be considered for a NAIA National Tournament Opening Round berth. 

With the win Point Loma improved to 16-12 overall, 10-9 in GSAC. The Lions took a tough loss and are currently 13-15 overall, 5-14 in conference.

“I think we accomplished our goal of playing as a team, and everybody did an awesome job of being positive throughout the entire game,” said Dahms who was succesfull on13 of her 26 swings.

On the defensive side for the Sea Lions, libero Nicole Eiler had 23 digs on the night.

"I'm really happy because tonight was the first night in a few nights that we played as a team,” she stated. “Our goal for the night was to play selfless and have fun, and that's what we ended up doing.”

The Sea Lions beat Vanguard in five sets earlier in the season. It would be  a sweep Tuesday, but the two squads were evenly matched the entire night with 49 kills on both sides in three-setter.

In the opener, Point Loma had 16 kills with only three errors and Vanguard had 18 kills with seven costly errors. The set remained close until PLNU pulled away late, started when Henken served up an ace to make the score 18-14. Alyssa Pitkin followed up with a kill to give the Sea Lions a five-point lead.

Natalie Hamill started off the second by serving up two points but VUSC quickly stepped back into the hunt, and battled for the rest of the stanza. The Sea Lions had 14 kills in the second, and the Lions had 17. Point Loma was down 9-13 for half of the set but rallied and finally tied VU 21-21 with a kill by Alyssa Dwyer. The set went back and forth from that point on and finally went to Loma after Henken had back-to-back kills.

“We played like a family and stayed positive through all three matches,” said Hamill.

Point Loma and Vanguard played two incredibly competitive sets, and the third fell into the same category.

The Sea Lions stayed ahead of Vanguard for most of the time but could not shake the visitors. But just as was the case in the first two sets, the third tilted towards Point Loma in the twenties. The Green and Gold took home the victory after Alyssa Dwyer had a kill making the final score 25-23.

“We did really well executing our duties on the court,” said PLNU's lone senior, Alyssa Pitkin. “We really made them work for their points. Our hard work paid off in the end and I'm very happy with the outcome.”

The Sea Lions out hit the Lions .295 to .218. PLNU controlled the net, teaming up on eight blocks to just one from VUSC. Alyssa Dywer added eight kills and two total blocks to the win. Fellow middle blocker Destiny McIntyre had four total blocks.

Setters Hamill and Aimee Bird combined on 38 assists and 13 digs.

Lisa Morgan finished with 20 kills in the loss for Vanguard with teammate Jamie Heenan contributing 15 kills. Alexandra Leja had 40 assists.

Point Loma hosts their final conference game on Saturday, November 13 against No. 7 Biola starting at 3:00 pm. The Sea Lions took a loss to the Eagles earlier in the season, losing 3-1.