SEATTLE — San Diego volleyball opened its four-match road trip with a 25-17, 25-23, 25-11 sweep of Seattle U on Thursday night at the Redhawk Center, hitting .321 while holding the Redhawks to .083.
Seattle U came in third in the West Coast Conference in blocks per set, but the Toreros (8-8, 3-3 WCC) out-blocked the Redhawks (4-12, 1-5 WCC) 7.0-4.0, with
Meghan Scholz in on five. San Diego bounced back from consecutive home losses to LMU and Pepperdine to win its WCC road opener.
Ahead 9-3 at Seattle U's first timeout, San Diego stretched a 13-8 lead to 17-8 with four straight points on
Lauren Lynch's serve, the last on a block by Scholz and
Nemo Beach. Beach had six kills on nine error-free swings in the set, and after the Redhawks saved two set points, her kill off a
Ryann Knuth set closed it out. Seattle U hit .051 in the first, with 11 kills and nine errors.
The Redhawks scored the first three points of the second set, and
Kierstyn Barton answered with four straight on her serve to turn a 4-2 deficit into a 6-4 lead. A 4-0 run that included two
BayLea Sparks kills, both with
Kylie Munday serving, made it 14-9, and Knuth's ace pushed the lead to 16-11.
From 18-13, Seattle U took eight of the next nine points, the last four on Chloee Leslie's serve, to go up 21-19. The Redhawks still led 22-20 after an unsuccessful San Diego challenge, but Barton put down back-to-back kills to tie it and Knuth's kill put the Toreros back in front. After Seattle U tied it once more, Barton's third kill of the stretch made it 24-23, and Knuth closed the set with an ace.
San Diego hit .515 in the third set, with 19 kills and two errors on 33 swings, and held Seattle U to five kills and .034 hitting. Barton served three straight points for a 7-2 lead, two of them on Beach kills, and Beach twice served four in a row, from 8-4 to 12-4 and from 20-10 to 24-10. Scholz had five kills on six error-free swings in the set, the last on match point.
Beach finished with a match-high 13 kills on .385 hitting and 14.0 points, and Scholz hit .533 with 10 kills on 15 swings and five block assists for 12.5 points. Barton added nine kills, 10 digs and three assists.
Knuth had six kills, two aces, six digs and two block assists and passed 15-for-15 in serve receive, and Sparks put down seven kills. Munday totaled 35 assists and three kills on seven error-free swings, and Lynch led all players with 18 digs.
All three of San Diego's WCC wins this season have come in straight sets. The Toreros are now 4-0 all-time against Seattle U, with three of the wins by sweep.
UP NEXT
San Diego continues its road trip at Portland on Saturday, Oct. 17, at 1 p.m. at the Chiles Center, with the match streaming on ESPN+.
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