SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The Chaminade University women's volleyball team was looking for a little redemption to start off their final road trip of the season.
Unfortunately for the Silverswords, there would be none in Wednesday's match at Westmont College.
Just 12 days after a surprising five-set defeat to the Warriors at McCabe Gymnasium, the 'Swords could not gain their revenge in their 20-25, 25-22, 25-22, 25-23 defeat at Murchison Gym.
Chaminade fell to 11-11 overall and, at 5-7 in the Pacific West Conference, is in sixth in the standings and are four games behind fourth-place Hawai'i Hilo (9-3) for the final bid in the conference tournament in November. Westmont is 10-11 and sits at the fifth spot at 7-6 in the PacWest.
Tabby Allen (Leander, Texas/Rouse) and
Lillie Hinton (Spicewood, Texas/Lake Travis) had a match-high 14 kills for the 'Swords while
Anna Karasinska (Nowa Ruda, Poland/Il Licem Ogolnoksztalcase IM) set career-highs with eight kills and five blocks while hitting .438.
Allison Panter (Denver, Colo./Portland State University/Denver School of Science and Technology HS) chipped in with seven successful attacks with Allen and
Reina Krueger (Fort Collins, Colo./Liberty Commons) tallying three blocks each.
Lilinoe Paschoal (Paukukalo, Maui, Hawai'i/Baldwin) collected her 11th double-double with 28 assists and 14 digs while
Kyra Pagud (Honolulu/Moanalua) also had 14 digs.
Valerie Coward had 12 kills for Westmont which swept the season series after entering the season having not defeated Chaminade since 1990.
In a reversal of recent trends, the 'Swords, who had dropped the opening set in five of their previous six matches, got seven kills in the frame from Allen as they hit .429 while holding the Warriors to just .182 to take the first.
CUH held a 17-15 lead in the second set before Westmont replied with three straight to take the lead, where another 3-0 run would help tie the match. The Warriors held off the 'Swords in the third set to take the two-sets-to-one lead.
Chaminade was poised to send the match into a fifth set, grabbing a 16-10 lead in Set 4 but a 7-0 run put Westmont ahead for the first time. After six ties, the last at 22-all, the Silverswords committed consecutive attack errors to give the Warriors a two-point edge where they ended it on the second match point.
On paper, the 'Swords had the statistical advantage in almost all categories including kills (53-46), attack percentage (.187-.158), assists (47-45) and blocks (8-6) while the teams were even in service aces (6) and digs (63). However, they made 15 service errors, six of them coming at inopportune times late in sets, while Westmont had 10.
The Silverswords will travel up the California coast for a Friday meeting at Jessup University with first serve set for 2 p.m. Hawai'i time.
