HONOLULU – The Chaminade University women's volleyball team continued to roll in their opening stages of the Pacific West Conference season Saturday by defeating Dixie State, 25-19, 18-25, 25-19, 25-15 at McCabe Gym.
Kira Long (Vista, Calif./Rancho Buena Vista) had a match-high 14 kills to power the Silverswords who not only improved to 9-3 on the season but 4-0 in the PacWest, their best conference start since 1996. They also joined eighth-ranked California Baptist and Azusa Pacific as PacWest unbeatens.
Emma Tecklenburg (Plano, Texas/Plano Senior) added 11 kills, 11 digs (her seventh double-double of the season) and a career-best five service aces while
Claire Zanon (Beaverton, Ore./Jesuit) continued to shine as an attacker, putting down 10 kills. She also had 15 digs, extending her streak of double-digit digs to 11.
Chaminade amassed 11 total team blocks with
Alexis Hamilton (Miami/Valley Christian) coming off the bench with five. Long, Zanon and
Terezie Cernosek (Santa Clarita, Calif./Valencia) added to the block party with three each with
Brooke Bell (Escondido, Calif./North Idaho College) adding two as well as eight kills.
Danielle Wiley (Peoria, Ariz./Centennial) had 40 assists with 10 digs while
Nina Torio (Mililani, Hawai'i/Mililani) had 13 digs.
Hannah Doonan led the Trailblazers (3-8, 1-2 PacWest) with 11 kills.
Chaminade opened the match on a 6-0 run before DSU fought back and closed to within a point at 15-14. But the 'Swords responded on their second 6-0 of the set to easily take the 1-0 lead.
After the Trailblazers tied the match, the 'Swords went on a 6-1 run to help them pull away in Set 3 and take a 2-1 advantage.
Then in the fourth, Chaminade put the match away behind Tecklenburg who went on a personal 5-0 surge which included four consecutive aces.
Although Dixie State had won 13 of the previous 15 encounters between the two programs, the Silverswords got the last word in on the series. Barring any non-conference or postseason meetings, Saturday's match was the final encounter as conference members. The Trailblazers will be leaving the PacWest for the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference next season.
The Silverswords will look to keep their winning streak intact next week as they close their conference-opening six-match home stand. They will face Point Loma (5-7, 2-2 PacWest) on Friday then Azusa Pacific (11-1, 4-0) on Saturday afternoon. Both matches will be at McCabe Gym with live streaming audio coverage on GoSwords.com.
