SAN DIEGO – The Sea Lions were host to the Hawks of Holy Names on Wednesday with the Hawks looking for their first victory on the season. Point Loma would have four players with nine or more kills to prevent the Hawks from finding that first victory. PLNU won in straight sets for the first time in conference play this season with scores of 25-12, 25-7, 25-17.
 
Julia Malinas led the way for the Sea Lions with 16 kills on a .714 hitting percentage, Jaime Cymbaluk added 12 kills and Madelynn Fox added 9 kills on a .750 hitting percentage. Cara Keturakis would once again come close to a triple-double with 39 assists, 9 kills and 7 digs.
 
Team Records
PLNU (9-14, 6-9 PacWest), HNU (0-22, 0-13 PacWest)
 
Turning Point
Point Loma's dominant second set gave them the momentum to power through the third set to secure the straight set victory.
 
PacWest Implications
The Hawks remain winless in conference and remain at the bottom of the rankings. The Sea Lions move to 6-9 and currently sit in 10^th place.
 
Scott's Thoughts:
On the dominant offensive performance: "We just finally got some confidence. A couple of the girls decided to just go really hard and when we play with a confident mental space we're good enough."

On the defensive effort: "Our digging was very good, our blocking was not. That has been a theme this season and part of that is just learning exactly how to do it, getting those good quality touches at the net. We will get there but we just aren't there yet."

On finishing the season out strong: "We have been fortunate in a sense, we have had a really difficult schedule thus far and the majority of the top teams in the conference we have already played twice. We are hoping that we are in a place where we have gotten the experience we needed and we can play strong from here on."
 
Scoring Summary
Set 1: PLNU 25, HNU 12
Set 2: PLNU 25, HNU 7
Set 3: PLNU 25, HNU 17

 
News and Notes
>  The Sea Lions had three players hit over .690 for the match. 
> Holley Persson tallied 18 digs in just three sets to average 6 digs per set.
> The game lasted one hour and ten minutes, the fastest match in Golden Gymnasium in the past three seasons. 
> The lowest hitting percentage in a set for the Sea Lions was .462, which would have been the highest hitting percentage of any other set they played this season. 
> Persson also added a season-high seven assists for the match. 
 
Up Next
The Sea Lions host Dixie State on Saturday at 5 p.m. in Golden Gymnasium.