Hawks defeat Johnson and Wales, Embry-Riddle Saturday
- Updated: August 29, 2015
EL CAJON ,– After suffering the tough season-opening loss to Johnson and Wales in five sets, the San Diego Christian Women’s Volleyball team swept the Wildcats in Game 1 and defeated Embry-Riddle in five sets to go 2-0 for the day.
With the wins, the Hawks improve to 2-1 on the season.
Although SDC took every set against JWU, they were all close as the Hawks won by no more than five points.
In Game 1, SDC led from start to finish hitting a .310 percentage, tallying 15 kills in the set. Their biggest lead came late into the set at 23-15 with an Alli Beezer kill. Molly Witzmann capped off the set with a kill off an Ashlyn Riding pass.
The Wildcats took a brief lead, 5-3, in Game 2, as the closely contested battle was tied 10 times. Juliana Gutknecht tallied a kill for point 21 and the Hawks went on to score the last five of six points.
Game 3 saw the Hawks hit their best percentage of the game at a .500 clip. SDC had 15 kills and only three hitting errors. But even with the high percentage, the Hawks had to hold of JWU. The Wildcats were up by as much as four, 15-11. SDC went on a 7-3 run to tie the last set 18-18 before taking control and winning the match.
Alexa Lambert led the team with 12 kills and Riding contributed 29 assists. The Hawks showed their length again registering 12 blocks. Witzmann and Jeyci Kaili both had three.
Playing Embry-Riddle for the first time this season, the Hawks had to play catch up after the third set.
The Eagles ran out to an 11-5 lead and would continue to lead throughout the first set. The Hawks made it close, trailing 20-19 but Embry-Riddle finished on a 5-2 run to capture the set.
After the Eagles took point one of set two, SDC led the rest of the way with a .252 hitting percentage. A Beezer kill a hitting error by the Eagles and a Lambert kill won the Hawks set two for the last three points.
Dropping their third set made set four that much more important in the game. The Hawks were more than up to the challenge being up by as much as 10, 20-10. A Beezer ace sealed the deal and forced the fifth and deciding set.
The Hawks received a little bit of good fortune as their first seven points of the set came off hitting or setting errors from Embry-Riddle. Lambert tallied the first point with a kill giving the Hawks an 8-5 lead. SDC finished the match on an 8-4 run.
Gutknecht led SDC with 14 kills in Game 2 with Beezer right behind her at 12. Riding had another 40+ assist match totaling 41.
SDC will travel to Phoenix to play Arizona Christian in a non-conference match before heading to Mesa, Ariz. To take on Benedictine for two games on Sept. 5.
| Final – Volleyball | 1 | 2 | 3 | F |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Johnson and Wales (3-4) | 20 | 21 | 21 | 0 |
| San Diego Christian (1-1) | 25 | 25 | 25 | 3 |
| El Cajon, CA | ||||
| Johnson and Wales | Indv. Leaders | San Diego Christian |
|---|---|---|
| #12 Layne Pachl – 8 | Kills | #5 LAMBERT, Alexa – 12 |
| #10 Erynn Keeney – 4 | Blocks | 3 Players – 3 |
| #12 Layne Pachl – 7 | Digs | 3 Players – 7 |
| #13 Erica Blomgren – 2 | Aces | #21 SMITH, Breanna – 2 |
| Johnson and Wales | Team Statistics | San Diego Christian |
|---|---|---|
| .047 | Hitting %: | .253 |
| 4.0 | Blocks: | 9.0 |
| 23 | Digs: | 28 |
| 6 | Aces: | 4 |
| Final – Volleyball | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Embry-Riddle (4-2) | 25 | 19 | 25 | 14 | 9 | 2 |
| San Diego Christian (2-1) | 21 | 25 | 23 | 25 | 15 | 3 |
| El Cajon, CA | ||||||
| Embry-Riddle | Indv. Leaders | San Diego Christian |
|---|---|---|
| #10 YODER, Jalin – 22 | Kills | #8 GUTKNECHT, Juliana – 14 |
| #6 FANCHER, Madison – 5 | Blocks | #11 HASKELL, Bevan – 8 |
| #8 SHROLL, Kaitlin – 13 | Digs | #16 ESTRADA, Aleka – 12 |
| 2 Players (#10,#16) – 3 | Aces | #12 BEEZER, Alli – 4 |
| Embry-Riddle | Team Statistics | San Diego Christian |
|---|---|---|
| .207 | Hitting %: | .252 |
| 8.0 | Blocks: | 11.0 |
| 55 | Digs: | 56 |
| 9 | Aces: | 9 |
San Diego ChristianVS
Johnson & Wales UniversityEL CAJON – The season-opening game for the SDC Women’s Volleyball team had everything from excitement to heartache.
Unfortunately for the Hawks, they fell in the latter as they dropped a 5-set match against Johnson and Wales Friday night, 25-22, 25-20, 13-25, 22-25, 18-16.
The Wildcats jumped out to a two set lead.
In set one, the Hawks held a late 17-12 lead but JWU would later tie the set at 20-20. An attack error by JWU led SDC to a 21-20 lead but the Wildcats scored the last five of six points.
SDC never held a lead in set two. Every time the Hawks would cut the deficit down to one, the Wildcats would fire back with runs. Trailing 24-16, SDC made a comeback attempt scoring the next four points. After a service error, Ashlyn Riding tallied an ace and a kill in the four-point stretch. But JWU notched the last point right after taking the 2-0 lead.
The Hawks had their best hitting percentage of the match (.474) as they rolled to 25-13 set win. SDC started on an 11-2 run forcing four attack errors from the Wildcats. Alexa Lambert and Megan Smith combined for the 1-2 punch finishing the set with back-to-back kills to claim set three.
Johnson and Wales held the lead in the early going of set four, but the Hawks took their first lead of the set at 13-12 when Lambert took a set from Riding and drilled home a kill. Both teams would share the lead as there were six ties from 13-13 and on in the set. Leveled at 21-21, Juliana Gutknecht had two kills in the last four points, as SDC evened the match at 2-2.
In the fifth and deciding set, JWU tallied eight of the first 10 points to storm out to an 8-2 lead. The Hawks, down but not out, rallied with a 8-2 run of their own to tie the set 10-10. The Wildcats had three chances to finish off the match but SDC forced extra play. But JWU finally capped off the match with a kill to seal the win.
Riding led the team with 41 assists and Gutknecht led with 16 kills. Molly Witzmann led the charge with eight blocks.
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Johnson and Wales (3-2) | 25 | 25 | 13 | 22 | 18 | 3 |
| San Diego Christian (0-1) | 22 | 20 | 25 | 25 | 16 | 2 |
| El Cajon, CA | ||||||
| Johnson and Wales | Indv. Leaders | San Diego Christian |
|---|---|---|
| #6 Kelley McLain – 16 | Kills | #8 GUTKNECHT, Juliana – 16 |
| 3 Players – 2 | Blocks | #3 WITZMANN, Molly – 8 |
| #9 Nicole Palmer – 14 | Digs | #8 GUTKNECHT, Juliana – 12 |
| #19 Zoie Daniels – 2 | Aces | 2 Players (#12,#13) – 3 |
| Johnson and Wales | Team Statistics | San Diego Christian |
|---|---|---|
| .070 | Hitting %: | .108 |
| 7.0 | Blocks: | 13.0 |
| 37 | Digs: | 47 |
| 3 | Aces: | 7 |
