SAN FRANCISCO – The race to the top of the Pacific West Conference is extremely crowded. And the Chaminade University women's volleyball team is right there with the rest of them.
The Silverswords, opening their final mainland road trip of the year, kept pace with other four contenders Saturday with a 25-21, 25-18, 25-13 sweep of Academy of Art at Kezar Pavilion.
Emma Tecklenburg (Plano, Texas/Plano Senior) put down a match-high 14 kills in the win. The junior outside hitter committed just two hitting errors on 23 swings resulting in a career-best .522 hitting percentage. Chaminade hit a season-high .360 in the match in sweeping the series with its sixth straight win over the Urban Knights.
Brooke Bell (Escondido, Calif./North Idaho College/Calvin Christian HS) and
Alana Handy (Burlington, Wash./Bethune-Cookman/Burlington-Edison) each provided 10 kills while the former hit .529 on the afternoon.
The win improved the 'Swords to 16-4 overall and 10-4 in the PacWest. Despite sitting in fifth in the conference, just 2 1/2 games separate them from second-place Azusa Pacific (13-2 PacWest). Also helping to create a logjam is third-place Point Loma (12-3) and fourth-place Hawai'i Hilo (10-3).
Bell had two blocks as did
Kiana Drumheller (Auburn, Wash./Auburn Riverside) which is her season-high.
Tate Lutu (Honolulu/Sacred Hearts) got her first career start, getting the call at outside hitter and she responded with a season-high four kills on a .571 attack percentage.
Skyler Curry (Thousand Oaks, Calif./Westlake) had a team-best 21 assists while
Danielle Wiley (Peoria, Ariz./Centennial) had 19 with a pair of service aces.
Claire Zanon (Beaverton, Ore./Jesuit) also had two aces along with 13 digs followed by
Nina Torio (Mililani, O'ahu, Hawai'i/Mililani) with nine.
Academy of Art was led by Ashley Pawlak, a Mililani High School graduate, who had 13 kills as the Urban Knights fell to 0-23 and 0-15 in the PacWest.
Leading 20-12 in the first set, the 'Swords appeared to be on their way to a quick afternoon of work. ART U's 5-0 run got them back into the set but Handy and Bell combined for Chaminade's final five points to put them up a set.
An 18-10 'Swords lead in the second was whittled down to 18-15 but kills from Tecklenburg, Bell and Handy along with an ace from
Isabella Tessitore (San Diego/Torrey Pines) pushed the lead to 23-16 where successful spikes from
Lataisia Saulala (Morgan Hill, Calif./Oakwood) and Tecklenburg help up Chaminade up 2-0.
Chaminade put the hammer down in the third frame with 6-1 and 10-2 surges which did not even allow ART U to put up similar rallies like it did in the first two sets. The 'Swords hit .429 in the final frame while the Urban Knights hit -.030.
The 'Swords had large differences in kills (48-30), assists (46-28) and digs (47-35). They also allowed just one ART U block while getting four themselves, allowing Academy of Art to hit just .127.
The Silversword continue their road trip Sunday against Dominican University of California.
