SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – Needing a win to shake off last Wednesday's disappointing five-set loss at Hawai'i-Hilo, the Chaminade University women's volleyball team rebounded in their opening match of their Bay Area road trip by defeating Dominican University of California in four sets 25-17, 22-25, 25-17, 25-16 Monday at the Conlon Center.
Keani Passi led a contingent of four Silverswords in double-digit kills with a match-high 19. The three other 'Swords in double-digit either set or tied season-highs, led by
Kim Spring who had 17, which tied the season-best she set against Dominican in the first meeting in Honolulu on Sept. 24.
Daisia LaBrie hammered down 13 kills which also tied her season-high while
Suncica Bakic put down a season-best 11 successful attacks.
The 'Swords hit a whopping .309 in the match, their best percentage in over a month while holding the Penguins to .149 as they swept the season series.
The win improved the Silverswords to 15-6 overall and 8-5 in the Pacific West Conference, putting them in a tie for fifth place in the conference with Azusa Pacific. The victory also guaranteed the program's first winning season since 2007 when that squad finished 15-7.
Dominican fell to 6-14 and 3-11.
The scrappy Penguins, whose injury-riddled squad played only seven in the match, had Brittany Latigue, Kate Even and Shannon RiggioKerley each put down 10 kills.
Passi added 10 digs for her 11
th double-double of the season while
Natashya Enos also recorded her 10
th double-double with a career-tying 34 assists with 19 digs. Meanwhile
Brenda Walker had 16 digs with
Reigna Johnson adding six total blocks, three solo.
The 'Swords used a 7-0 run midway through the first set to help take a 1-0 lead. Bakic put down three kills during the run while Johnson added a kill and solo block.
However the Penguins battled back in the second set as the Silverswords could not establish a similar run they did in the opener. Dominican led by as many as six (17-11) but the 'Swords themselves rallied late in the frame, staving off three set points with the help of another Johnson kill while teaming with Bakic for a block to close to 24-22 before a hitting error closed the set to tie the match.
In the third set, Passi keyed a 6-0 run with four kills as Chaminade opened up an 8-2 lead. The Silverswords then went on another run, this time 6-1, to open up a 13-6 advantage to help them capture a 2-1 lead.
Enos served back-to-back aces to help catapult a 7-1 lead in the fourth with Passi putting down a pair of kills during the run. DUC closed to 9-6 but Spring's four kills helped extend Chaminade's lead to 16-10, then LaBrie hammered down four attacks in a 5-0 run to give the visitors an insurmountable 21-12 lead to help seal the win.
The 'Swords dominated statistically in kills (69-37), assists (65-34), blocks (8-5) and digs (82-68). They also had six service aces, two by Enos, to Dominican's five.
The Silverswords face Notre Dame de Namur Tuesday in their second of four matches of their final Mainland trip of the regular season.
