SEA LIONS STRIVING TO SET THEMSELVES APART IN NEW SEASON

(SAN DIEGO) PLNU Volleyball enters its 2025 campaign looking to build off its two most successful seasons in the program’s NCAA era.

“We have a lot of new pieces that we're just trying to put together,” Head Coach Jonathan Scott said. “It’s definitely a completely different team even though we're the same program, so I'm trying to mimic what our program is about but in a new team environment for 2025.”

In 2023, Point Loma won its first PacWest championship before posting its best ever single-season record (26-2 overall, 19-1 PacWest) and picking up its first NCAA postseason victory in 2024.

With PLNU set to start its 2025 season on Thursday, the Sea Lions are striving to set themselves apart in several ways.

“Being a Christian school, this is a place where the Lord is present and we are set apart in a lot of ways,” Scott said. “That's one of them where we get to pray together and we get to be in a place where God matters. We talk scripture and when we talk analogy we bring the Word into practice.

“We're trying to do this thing called volleyball in a different way from maybe some others, so we're just trying to live a life that's set apart on and off the floor.”

PLNU is set apart on the floor with the return of PacWest Player of the Year Abigail Nua (outside hitter), who also became the program’s first ever AVCA First Team All-American a season ago.

She will be joined on the court this year by fellow All-American Sophia Baugh (setter), as well as All-PacWest performer and AVCA West Region Freshman of the Year Saren Rogers (outside hitter).

Their return is a big reason why the Sea Lions are picked to win the conference this year and will start the season ranked No. 16 in the AVCA Coaches Poll, PLNU’s highest preseason ranking in program history.

“I mean probably what most of the coaches are voting on is we return Abi, the Player of the Year, and we were only a game off of winning it last year,” Scott said. “We have that advantage that most teams don't in returning our best player, let alone an All-American. We return two All-Americans with Soph so that's huge.”

Point Loma also brings back liberos Macy Reynolds and Kira Federico, with Scott emphasizing their impact on the team’s serve receive and first ball side out game.

“Definitely an advantage that we have this year is we return Abi, Macy and Kira as three experienced primary passers,” Scott said. “With three very quality and experienced passers, and then returning an All-American setter with that, we should have a pretty strong first ball game.”

Outside hitter Mariah Hughes, middle blocker Kate Sullivan, right side Ellie Nichols and middle blocker Finn Higginbotham also return, further enhancing the team’s depth.

The team welcomes seven newcomers in total, including graduate transfer Jill Leslie (middle blocker), a three-time All-Conference player at Oklahoma Baptist, and six freshmen – liberos Hailey Wilson and Samantha Claus; middle blockers Kyra Miles, Hailey Clark and Adeline Daniel; and setter Jolyna Salas.

“A lot of these girls are hungry returners who didn't play much in the past or freshmen who are hungry and good enough to get out there this year,” Scott said. “We have a lot of difficult decisions to make because we have a lot of depth.”

Point Loma opens its season by hosting the San Diego Invitational in Golden Gym, beginning on Thursday at 6 p.m. against Emporia State. PLNU will also welcome Northwest Nazarene (Friday, 6 p.m.) and Cal State San Bernardino (Saturday, 3 p.m.) to The Point.

PLNU will then travel to Denver for the Colorado Premier Challenge, the top NCAA Division II regular season tournament. The Sea Lions will take on preseason No. 8 West Texas A&M and No. 18 Bentley on Sep. 12 before playing a pair of matches on Sep. 13 against opponents to be determined.

“Our conference historically has had a lower strength of schedule, so we're still trying to navigate how DII does postseason selection and trying to increase our strength of schedule, but also get wins,” Scott said. “Maybe we figured that out a little bit but if you get the opportunity to play in this tournament, I feel like you have do it.

“This is our first invite to the Colorado Premier and it really is the top tournament. We don't necessarily know what to expect other than it's going to be really hard and we're going to get pushed. It’ll give us some postseason feelings hopefully so that once we're there in December it'll be more familiar.”

Then after four straight non-conference matchups against PacWest opponents, the preseason conference favorites will begin PacWest play on Sep. 29 at home against Hawai’i Hilo.

PLNU will play a 12-match PacWest schedule, with three additional matches against conference opponents mixed in, concluding with three home matches in four days from Nov. 12-15.

The top four teams in the PacWest standings will then compete in the inaugural PacWest Championships, set to take place Nov. 20-21 in Honolulu.

“The conference tournament is new for all of us, so navigating how to win at the end of the year is a little bit more of an importance than in the past where if you had a really rough preseason, your hopes of the end of the year were pretty much shot,” Scott said. “Now all you need is a top four conference finish and you're in the postseason. You're playing for the future all season long and that changes things a little bit.”

Point Loma will hope to make a third straight NCAA West Regional appearance Dec. 4-6, with the NCAA Championships scheduled for Dec. 11-13.

For the team’s full schedule, click HERE.