box score

SAN DIEGO – NAIA No. 17-ranked Point Loma Nazarene put up a fight but lost 3-1 (21-25, 25-17, 25-16, 29-27) to second-ranked Concordia in Golden Gym Tuesday night.

The Sea Lions came out to a 4-2 lead in the first set only to see the Eagles pass them at 6-5. PLNU regrouped and went on a 10-3 run to open up a 6-point lead. Concordia pulled to within a point but could get no closer, the Sea Lions winning by four.

CUI (23-1, 11-0) turned the tables on Point Loma in the second. After the two squads were tied at 9-all, the Eagles slowly pulled away to win the stanza and even up the set count at one-apiece.

The third set belonged to Concordia from the start. Entering the fourth the Sea Lions could have thrown in the towel but instead stormed ahead 7-2 to start the stanza. The Eagles came right back with a run of their own, however, to even the set at 14-14. From that point on the score went back-and-forth, the set being pushed into extra points before CUI closed out the match with 29-27 win.

What made losing that set so tough was all the calls that went against PLNU. Still, the Sea Lions (13-6, 5-6 GSAC) were outhit .262 to .214 and were outblocked 16.5 to 7. Another killer for Point Loma was the 12 service errors made by the team, compared to just two aces.

Tabitha Henken led PLNU with 16 kills with Delaney McCraney adding 13 and Maddie Dahms contributing 11. Alyssa Dwyer was also in on nine kills and five blocks and McCraney added 10 digs to her statline.

Aimee Bird had 46 assists and 13 digs in the loss and Caitlin Bernardin had 10 digs.

Four Eagles had at least 10 winners in the match led by 17 from Maddy Ekis and 13 from Brooke Marino.

PLNU will be at home this Saturday when they host #7 Azusa Pacific starting at 7:00 pm.