SANTA CLARITA, Calif. - The Sea Lions opened Golden State Athletic Conference play by sweeping The Master's Friday night in Bross Gym (25-18, 25-21, 25-15).  PLNU improves to 7-3 overall and are 1-0 in conference play. The Mustangs fall to 5-5, 0-1 GSAC.

PLNU, which struggled early on with blocking, has been putting up a wall of late and Friday was no exception. The team tallied 13.5 blocks in just three sets. Alyssa Dwyer led the Sea Lions with eight total blocks followed with five from Destiny McIntyre and four from Aimee Bird. Maddie Dahms and Karleigh Kaczmarek had three apiece.

The Sea Lions registered a .319 team hitting percentage led by 12 kills from reining NAIA Player of the Week Tabitha Henken. She was the only player on the court to reach into double figure winners. The next PLNU player in that category was Alyssa Pitkin with five kills. Middles Dwyer and McIntyre had four kills each.

Bird did the majority of setting for Point Loma, dishing out 21 assists and pulling out seven digs. Nicole Eiler had 10 digs to lead the Green and Gold.

The Mustangs were held to a .097 hitting percentage and had just two team blocks. Their main offensive threat were Sam Dougherty with nine kills and Tori Callihan with 7. Setters Jamie Long and Brook Bekendam had 15 and 13 assists respectively.

PLNU has won five straight after a slow start knocked the Sea Lions from the top-25 for the first time in 35 rankings. On Saturday the team travels up to Fresno Pacific to take on the top-ranked Sunbirds at 3:00 pm. The defending national champions are 57-13 all-time against PLNU and are on a 50 match win streak. FPU swept San Diego Christian Friday night.