Box Score

SAN DIEGO - The Point Loma volleyball team ran its winning streak to nine matches with a three-set sweep of Dixie State on Friday at Golden Gymnasium. The Sea Lions took down the Red Storm, 25-16, 32-30 and 25-21, to improve to 15-3 on the season and continues to be the only unbeaten team in Pacific West Conference play at 9-0.

The win keeps PLNU one match in front of Cal Baptist (8-1) and 1.5 ahead of BYU-Hawaii (7-1). This was also the Sea Lions ninth straight win at home. The loss was the third straight for Dixie State in conference play. The Red Storm now stand at 9-6 on the season and 6-3 in the PacWest.

Just as in every match during the winning streak, the Sea Lions decisively won the hitting percentage battle over their opponent. Tonight was no different as the Sea Lions recorded a .252 hitting percentage while limiting DSC to .173. PLNU also held all Red Storm student-athletes to single-figure kills. Point Loma also benefitted from a 6-0 edge in service aces.

Heather Leavitt led all scorers with 20 kills, and the Sea Lions with a .341 hitting percentage. She also had a match-high 14 digs to post her 11th double-double of the season. Kelli LeClair just missed a double-double of her own with 11 kills and nine digs. Savannah Wedemeyer recorded half of the Sea Lions' six aces while dishing out 37 assists. Makenzi Bird and Shannon Young led Dixie State with nine kills apiece.

PLNU opened the match with a dominant first set. The Sea Lions recorded 20 kills and just one error as they hit .500 to take the set 25-16 and lead 1-0 heading into set two.

The second set was the definition of a grind, and was one of Point Loma's most impressive set wins of the season.  Point Loma led by about two points most of the set and went up 23-19 on back-to-back aces by Wedemeyer. The Red Storm then fought back and tied the set at 24-24 to send it to extra points. The teams continued to exchange points until it was 29-29. Dixie State continued to keep taking the one point lead but each time the Sea Lions responded to sideout their serve and regain possession. The turning point in the set came when Wedemeyer set up LeClair for a kill to tie the match back up at 29-29 and then Wedemeyer recorded her third ace of the set on the next serve to put PLNU in front for the first time since the teams went to extra points. After the teams exchanged points once again, the Red Storm were unable to return the attack from LeClair and the set went to the Sea Lions (32-30).

"We focus a lot on siding-out in practice so it was nice to see that in a set as tight as that one," said PLNU head coach Sarah Gustin. "I am very happy that is starting to transfer to our game. I think we still need to work on our consistency and not give up runs of points, but for the most part Savannah did a great job of setting our hitters and our hitters did a great job of putting the ball where their defense wasn't."

Dixie State continued to battle Point Loma in the third set and even held the lead at 19-18. However, the Sea Lions would go on to score seven of the final nine points to win the set 25-21 and to close out the match with a three set sweep.

When asked if she felt the Sea Lions had a target now painted on their back now that they are in first place coach Gustin had this to say: "We don't look at it that way," said Gustin in reference to playing with the target on their back. "We focus on doing what we do and doing it well. If that means we are in first place, then we are in first place. It doesn't matter who we are playing or when we are playing, it just matters that we do what we do well. We have talked that we don't need to change anything. We just have to go out there each match the same way and play our game."

The Sea Lions will close out its three-match homestand on Saturday at 5:00 p.m. against Notre Dame de Namur (4-11, 2-5 PacWest).

"Notre Dame de Namur is a much better team this year," explained Gustin. "We are going to have to be disciplined. They have great athletes on the floor and hit the ball very hard, but I think if we control our side and are disciplined we should be in good shape."