BOX SCORE
FULLERTON, Calif. - The Sea Lions shrugged off an opening set loss by taking the next three sets and claim a 3-1 victory over Hope International Tuesday night (22-25, 25-14, 25-19, 25-19). Point Loma Nazarene, fresh off a big win over Westmont on Saturday that moved the team back into the NAIA rankings to 25, is now 10-6 overall, 4-3 GSAC. The Royals fell to 4-7, 1-6 GSAC.
The Sea Lions lost a close first set 22-25. Point Loma was up 11-4, but that was when Hope International started making a comeback. Naomi Iosia had six kills at the right time to spark the Royals.
The loss fired up PLNU for the rest of the match. Junior Tabitha Henkin and freshman
Alyssa Dwyer both made sure the Sea Lions would be on the winning end. Throughout the night Henkin had 18 kills on 49 attempts, and Dwyer followed with 12 kills on 19 attempts (.579).
Point Loma started pulling ahead in the second when sophomore
Nicole Eiler had two service aces, making the score 12-5. Point Loma's transfer junior
Aimee Bird later followed with two winners set by
Natalie Hamill to push the lead to 17-9. PLNU would go on to win by the score of 25-14.
"The Royals put up of a fight," said Eiler, but by this time PLNU was in control of the match.
The Sea Lions were up in the third set 22-13, after sophomore
Maddie Dahms had a kill with a set from Bird. Hope International came back with a pair kills from Christina Richards and one from Iosia to make the score 23-17. After the two sides traded points, Henkin put an end to the set with a winner.
Set four was tied six different times. PLNU was down 19-17 but had all the momentum by the end, scoring eight straight points against HIU. Sophomore
Karleigh Kaczmarek started the Sea Lions' rally with a kill, followed by two service aces by Hamill to push Loma ahead for good.
Neither side hit particularly well, PLNU holding a .233 to .160 advantage. The Sea Lions had seven blocks to four from the Royals but were out-dug by a 53-46 margin. PLNU helped out its cause by hitting 10 service aces, three each from Hamill and Henken.
Destiney McIntyre had four total blocks in the win followed by three each from Bird and Dwyer. Eiler had 15 digs with Hamill and Bird adding 22 and 17 digs, respectively.
Iosa led HIU with 21 kills. Kassen Boesel had 12 kills.
The Sea Lions will next host No. 7 Concordia in the Golden Gymnasium Saturday October 2 at 3pm.
