IRVINE, Calif. – The Chaminade University women's volleyball wrapped up their first Pacific West Conference road trip of the season with a disappointing five-set loss at Concordia Irvine Saturday at CU Arena.
The Silverswords rallied back from two sets down but couldn't complete the comeback in the end with the 25-18, 25-23, 27-29, 22-25, 15-13 loss.
Alana Handy (Burlington, Wash./Bethune-Cookman Univ./Burlington-Edison) put down a season-high 21 kills along with 18 digs and three service aces for the 'Swords who fell to 10-3 overall and 4-3 in the PacWest.
Meanwhile
Emma Tecklenburg (Plano, Texas/Plano Senior) moved past
Crystal Powell (2010-13) into the school's top-10 kills list by putting down 18 on the night, giving the junior 743 in her career.
Tecklenburg added 12 digs for Chaminade which completed its four-match Southern California swing with a 1-3 mark in what is considered to be the most difficult quadrant in the conference. Prior to Wednesday's win at Point Loma, the 'Swords had dropped seven straight in the SoCal region dating back to 2015.
Patience O'Neal had a team-high 18 kills for the Eagles (5-10, 4-3 PacWest) who were hosting their alumni as well as celebrating the CUI softball team's PacWest championship last spring.
Rachel Reedy (Temple City, Calif./Arcadia) and
Terezie Cernosek (Santa Clarita, Calif./Valencia) each put down nine kills with the latter setting a career high. Both hit for high averages (Reedy, .304; Cernosek, .375) as did
Claire Zanon (Beaverton, Ore./Jesuit) who hit .308 with six kills along with 14 digs.
Brooke Bell (Escondido, Calif./North Idaho College/Calvin Christian) had eight kills with two blocks.
Both CUH setters,
Skyler Curry (Thousand Oaks, Calif./Westlake) and
Danielle Wiley (Peoria, Ariz./Centennial), each had season-highs in assists with 32 and 29, respectively.
Wiley added nine digs while
Nina Torio (Mililani, O'ahu, Hawai'i/Mililani) also had nine.
Down two sets, the Silverswords nearly squandered a 16-10 lead in the third set with Concordia rallying back to take the lead. However, the 'Swords summoned their will, staving off four match points before surviving to extend the match to a fourth.
Chaminade scored the Set 4's first six points before CUI fought back and took a brief lead midway through, although the 'Swords' outlasted the Eagles to send the match to a fifth.
In the decisive winner-take-all set, Concordia built seemingly insurmountable 12-8 lead. But again, Chaminade battled back. Bell, Tecklenburg, Cernosek and Handy each put down consecutive kills to tie the set at 12 but CUI scored three of the final four points to win the match.
Chaminade owned the edge in kills (73-63), assists (69-58) and digs (80-68). However Concordia had the higher attack percentage (.266-.228) and led in aces (9-7) and blocks (12-2).
The Silverswords return home on Saturday against Holy Names with four of their next five matches at McCabe Gym. First serve is set for 3 p.m.
