Box Score HONOLULU – Two evenly matched teams went at it for over two hours, matching each other nearly score-for-score. And in the end, it was the Chaminade women's volleyball team who came out victorious, doing a feat that hasn't been accomplished in over five years.
The Silverswords on Friday extended their winning streak to three after a thrilling 18-25, 25-23, 27-25, 25-23 win over Dominican University of California in a Pacific West Conference match at McCabe Gym. It's the first 3-match win streak since late September 2008.
The win improves the Swords to 8-12 overall and 5-10 in the PacWest. The Penguins fell to 9-16 and 6-9. With the exception of the first set, the match was played near-evenly with no team able to establish more than a 4-point lead in the last three.
Reigna Johnson led Chaminade with 13 kills, tying her career-high previously set twice this season. Johnson also hit .579, also a career-high, while piling up eight blocks, one shy of her career-best set last season against Dixie State.
Cassie Rushlow had 11 kills, one shy of her career-best while hitting .320 on the evening.
Kim Spring tallied her fifth double-double this season (10 kills, 11 digs) and tied her career-high with five combined blocks.
Daniella Montoya had a team-high 27 assists while setter-mate
Valentina Bevilacqua tallied her third double-double (24 assists, 15 digs) and
Kylee Pedro had career-tying four service aces to go along with seven kills. Reigning PacWest Defender of the Week
Brenda Walker had 14 digs, while
Athena Maskarich made 12.
Dominican was led by Hannah Stocking's 13 kills while Samantha Rains had 10 kills and seven total blocks.
After losing a somewhat lackluster first set, the Swords came out with a sense of purpose in the second, going toe-to-toe with the Penguins, winning the second to tie the match at 1.
The pivotal third set came down to the wire with Chaminade serving for the set at 24-23. But two consecutive Dominican kills gave the advantage to the Penguins, which had them serving for the set at 25-24. But a
Crystal Powell kill and a double-block by Pedro and Bevilacqua gave the momentum back to the home team, where Powell ended it by hammering the winner home off a dig attempt.
In the fourth, Chaminade had a 17-13 lead, but Dominican would eventually tie the set at 17, then took a 20-19 lead on a kill by Kamehameha-Kapalama graduate Amanda Wasko. The Swords then scored three straight on kills by Pedro and Johnson as well as a Johnson and
Kapiolani Rapoza double block to take a 22-20 lead. Dominican would answer, tying the set at 23, but Johnson and Spring combined to block Rains' spike to set up aloha ball, then the Swords' defense forced Rains to hit out-of-bounds, ending the match.
Chaminade hit .229 on the night and also amassed a season-high 12 total blocks.
"We're doing a lot more technique in practice, which is really good for us," Johnson said. "We're taking it more seriously and we're trying to end the season with a 10-10 (conference) record, so we have five more games to try and win."
The Swords return to action Saturday against Notre Dame de Namur, the final match of their current home stand before heading back out on the road to Southern California and Utah next week. Match time is set for 7 p.m. with live streaming audio available on goswords.com.
