HONOLULU – For a span of about 30 minutes, it appeared that the events of 24 hours earlier might repeat itself for the Chaminade University women's volleyball team.
Instead, the Silverswords weathered the early storm then rolled past Dominican, 29-27, 25-19, 25-16, Friday at McCabe Gymnasium.
Reigning Pacific West Conference Player of the Week
Rachel Reedy (Temple City, Calif./Arcadia) put down a match-high 16 kills and hit .414 while
Emma Tecklenburg (Plano, Texas/Plano Senior) added 14 and a .345 percentage for the Silverswords who extended their school-record winning streak to 12.
Annah Rivera (Granada Hills, Calif./Bishop Alemany) contributed with 12 kills on a .458 attack percentage for the Silverswords who improved to 17-2 overall and 11-0 in the PacWest. Chaminade, sitting in first place of the conference standings, is the lone squad without a conference loss after Azusa Pacific dropped its first PacWest match earlier in the evening at Point Loma, falling to 13-3 and 7-1 in the conference.
Chaminade rolled early, taking a 5-1 lead in the first set. But the Penguins (1-15, 1-10 PacWest) answered with a 9-2 run and eventually built their lead to 18-13, bringing back the ugly memories of Fresno Pacific from the previous evening which the Sunbirds won the first two sets.
This time, however, the 'Swords rallied back, running off seven consecutive points, three off Rivera kills, a service ace from
Alecza Abary (Fontana, Calif./Rancho Cucamonga) and a block from Reedy and
Rae Montrose (Cedar Park, Utah/Lone Peak). Dominican replied, taking the lead back at 22-21 and 24-23 and threatened to take the set.
The 'Swords managed to stave off three set points thanks to a kill from
Alana Handy (Burlington, Wash./Bethune-Cookman Univ./Burlington-Edison HS) and two more from Tecklenburg. Reedy then took over, slamming down Chaminade's final three kills to allow the home team to survive the first set.
The Penguins hung around in the early stages of Set 2. The 'Swords owned a 15-12 edge but a 4-0 CUH run keyed by two more Reedy kills and back-to-back aces from
Leka Kiner-Falefa (Honolulu/UNLV/Mid-Pacific Institute) helped them pull away for a 2-0 lead.
Both teams had runs to start Set 3. Chaminade scored the first four points before Dominican responded with five in a row to take the early lead. Tied at 13, the 'Swords put their foot down. Reedy accounted for three points with two kills and a combined block with
Jacqueline Wolfe (Laguna Hills, Calif./Irvine Valley CC/Mater Dei) while
Claire Zanon (Beaverton, Ore./Jesuit) got all three of her aces during the 9-0 tsunami which put the match away. The 'Swords hit a whopping .393 in the set.
Montrose and Handy had four kills while Wolfe added three more.
Natashya Enos (Kahalu'u, O'ahu, Hawai'i/Saint Francis) and Abary each had 21 assists with
Danielle Wiley (Peoria, Ariz./Centennial) added five more.
Kiner-Falefa led all players with 18 digs and also dealt three aces. Enos had eight digs while Rivera and Reedy each had six.
Reedy, Montrose and Wolfe each had three blocks.
Chaminade hit .316 on the night, its second-highest of the season and held Dominican to .152 while putting down 54 kills to DUC's 33. They also had 52 assists to Dominican's 28 while out-digging them, 55-43, out-blocking them 8-6 and had eight aces to their four.
Dominican was led by Rebecca Smith who had eight kills.
The 'Swords are back in action Sunday when they host Notre Dame de Namur at McCabe Gym. Match time is set for 3 p.m.
