Nov. 5, 2011

Box Score

PORTLAND, Ore.- The 21st-ranked University of San Diego volleyball team swept Portland 3-0 Saturday afternoon in West Coast Conference road action. Katie Hoekman and Amber Tatsch led the Toreros (25-3, 10-3 WCC) with 10 kills apiece, while Jianna Bonomi dished out a match-high 23 assists on the day.

The Toreros got started hot with a monstrous .560 hitting percentage as a team in the first set. The Pilots (8-18, 2-11 WCC) kept it close to open the set until a kill by Hoekman set of an 11-2 USD run that resulted in a 17-7 lead with a kill from Sandra Lozic, one of her five kills in the match. The Pilots would get as close as eight points in the set before USD used a kill by Chloe Ferrari to close out the set 25-13.

The second set saw the Toreros open up an early 6-2 lead following an attack error from Portland's Marissa Plummer. Coming out of a Pilot timeout, USD kept the pressure on by stringing together four kills in a row and later took advantage of four consecutive attack errors by Portland and a service ace from Rachel Alvey. Eventually USD built up a 20-10 lead on another kill from Lozic and captured the set on a kill from Hoekman that gave the Toreros the set 25-14.

In the final frame, Portland decided they were not going down without a fight. Portland took an early 5-2 lead after an attack error by Hoekman. From there, the Toreros tallied three points in a row to tie it at 5-5. Both teams traded points for the majority of the set. The Toreros snuck ahead with a 20-17 lead at one point, but Portland came back to even it at 23-23 with a kill from Kate Bostwick. With a tight finish, USD was able to get back-to-back kills from Tatsch and Carrie Baird to finally win the set 28-26 and finish off the sweep.

The Toreros hit .330 (45-103) as a team, while Portland registered a .149 (31-94) clip overall. Kati Hronek led the Pilots with 11 kills as Monica Jordan tallied 20 assists.

The Toreros move on to play at Loyola Marymount on Saturday, Nov. 12th at 1:00 pm.