PLNU Volleyball rewarded a raucous Golden Gym crowd with a season-opening sweep of Seattle Pacific (27-25, 25-20, 26-24) on Friday night in its first match of the Seaside Invitational.
"We've been thinking about this day and this particular match for nine months, so it's pretty great," Head Coach
Jonathan Scott said of his team's season-opening sweep.
Point Loma led by as many as four in the first set before the visitors stormed back to take a 24-21 lead, prompting Scott to call timeout. His team responded by winning six of the next seven points to win the opening stanza.
"We were just trying to stay in the moment and win that next point by doing your job on the next opportunity," Scott said of his team's mindset facing set point in the first. "We had them down in all three sets and they grinded back all three times. We have to give them a lot of credit. That was a really good battle."
The Sea Lions carried that late first set momentum into the second, jumping out to a 16-8 lead that included a 7-0 run on the back of
Torina Hommes' serving.
PLNU then put the Falcons on the brink and led 22-17 in the third, but SPU won five-straight points to tie the set before saving the first of two match points. However, back-to-back kills from
Claire Smith and
Bailey Williams clinched the straight-set victory for the tournament hosts.
Anna Massari led all players with nine kills on just 15 attempts. The 6-foot-2 middle blocker missed the first half of last season because of injury before leading the PacWest in blocks/set during the matches she played in upon her return.
On Friday, she reminded everyone just how important she is to the Sea Lions' squad.
"It's really good to be back," Massari said on being able to start the season healthy. "It was a long time of working hard when nobody was watching, so to get to go out there with all of the girls in such a great team win, it definitely feels really good and made it all worth it."
Massari dominated at the net again on Friday, as did Hommes who tallied five blocks to pace all players. In total, Point Loma out-blocked Seattle Pacific, 16-8.
"Anna and I go head-to-head every single day in practice," Hommes said. "She just really inspires me to get better every single day and she has so much love for volleyball and competing. That really makes me better every single day and it's fun to get out there on nights like this to play next to her and not against her."
Massari and Hommes (eight kills on 16 attempts) were two of five Sea Lions with at least seven kills on the night, along with
Abigail Nua (eight),
Grace Hicks (seven) and Smith (seven).
"We're definitely spoiled this year and we're just trying to ride that wave," Scott said. "I'm excited to see those box scores night after night because I know there's going to be different leaders depending on the matchup, depending on the team. We have a lot of players who are ready for their moment."
Scott won't have to wait long to see another box score, as PLNU returns to Golden Gym on Saturday for two matches, first at 11:30 a.m. against Lewis before taking on Cal State San Marcos at 7 p.m.
