SAN RAFAL, Calif. – The Chaminade University women's volleyball team continued their mastery in the Pacific West Conference's Northern California pod Sunday with a 25-12, 25-22, 22-25, 26-24 win over Dominican University of California at the Conlon Center.
Emma Tecklenburg (Plano, Texas/Plano Senior) put down 23 kills, one shy of her career-high set last season at Biola, while hitting .327 on the night while
Brooke Bell (Escondido, Calif./North Idaho College/Calvin Christian HS) set her career-best with 16 kills on a .520 attack percentage along with six total blocks.
The Silverswords won their fourth straight and improved to 17-4 overall, their best-ever 21-match start to a season. With an 11-4 PacWest record, they are holding onto the fifth-place spot in the conference, just a half-game behind Hawai'i Hilo (11-3) which defeated Academy of Art earlier in the afternoon. Just 2 1/2 games separate Chaminade from conference-leading Biola (14-2).
Alana Handy (Burlington, Wash./Bethune-Cookman/Burlington-Edison) added 10 kills and 13 digs for her 10th double-double of the season, along with a pair of service aces.
Skyler Curry (Thousand Oaks, Calif./Westlake) had a season-high 33 assist, just four off her career-high set last season at Academy of Art and also had nine digs.
Danielle Wiley (Peoria, Ariz./Centennial) had 15 and two aces.
Three Penguins had nine kills each including Cat Thomason who spent a year in a Silverswords uniform in 2014. Dominican fell to 6-14 and 4-11.
Claire Zanon (Beaverton, Ore./Jesuit) had a team-leading 17 digs while also contributing with five kills, eight assists, two aces and a career-tying three total blocks.
Terezie Cernosek (Santa Clarita, Calif./Valencia) had six kills on the night.
After a relatively incident-free first set where they outhit DUC .310 to -.031, Chaminade built a 21-15 lead in the second before the scrappy Penguins rallied to cut the deficit to just two points three times. But Tecklenburg's kill and a DUC attack error at set point helped squash the rally.
Dominican grabbed an early lead in the third set and never relinquished it the rest of the way. Chaminade's Set 3 loss snapped a streak of 20 consecutive set wins in Northern California and was their first loss there since November 2016 when they dropped the opening set at Academy of Art in an eventual four-set 'Swords win. Chaminade won all four matches in NorCal via sweeps last year then swept ART U on Saturday.
In the fourth, the teams were tied at 9 when the 'Swords went on a 10-3 surge to take a 19-13 advantage. DUC however continued to chip away and eventually forced a 23-all tie. Chaminade however got the last word as Handy and Tecklenburg each terminated attacks to extend the 'Swords winning streak in NorCal to seven matches.
Chaminade compiled 64 kills, 61 assists, seven aces, 58 digs and seven total team blocks to Dominican's 42 kills, 39 assists, two aces, 50 digs and six blocks. The 'Swords also hit .276 while the Penguins were held to .159.
The Silverswords continue their road trip Tuesday at Holy Names.
