Women’s Volleyball Tops Biola in Road Opener

Posted with permission, article and pictures, courtesy of Chaminade University

LA MIRADA, Calif. – The set streak came to an end. But the match streak continues.
 
The Chaminade University women’s volleyball team opened their crucial Southern California road trip Monday with a 25-19, 25-9, 24-26, 25-23 win over Biola University at Chase Gymnasium.
 
Sasha Colombo (Milan, Italy/Colorado State/Liceo Scientifico Giordano Bruno HS) slammed down a career-high 18 kills and hit .643 with no attack errors as the Silverswords won their seventh straight match to improve to 10-6 overall and 5-0 in the Pacific West Conference. Colombo, whose previous career kills best was 12 in the spring 2021 as a member of Colorado State, also added four service aces.
 
Greta Corti (Varese, Italy/Univ. of San Francisco/Alessandro Manzoni Liceo HS) added 11 kills and 13 digs for the ‘Swords.
 
Anna Aubele had 15 kills to lead Biola, which lost at home for the first time in five tries this season. The Eagles fell to 7-7 overall and 4-3 in the PacWest.
 
Although the Silverswords saw their school-record sets won streak end at 20 in the third, they did bounce back against the only team they failed to register a win against during last year’s PacWest championship season.
 
Chaminade opened up a 14-8 lead in the opening set before the Eagles closed to within 16-13. But the ‘Swords scored the next four with Colombo at the service line, accounting for three points with a kill and back-to-back aces.
 
Colombo continued to wreak havoc at the service line in the second set with five straight trips to the line which included another ace. When the Eagles finally got a point to get out of the rotation, Chaminade led 9-3. The ‘Swords closed out the second set on a 12-0 run with three kills by Colombo, three Corti aces while the team forced four Eagles hitting errors. The 25-9 win extended Chaminade’s consecutive streak of sets won to 20.
 
But as expected, Biola came out to defend its home court, grabbing as many as a three-point lead late in the third set. Later, BU had set point at 24-22 but Chaminade responded with back-to-back kills from Brooklen Pe’a (Woods Cross, Utah/Youngstown State/Bountiful HS) and Sophie Schilling (Berlin, Germany/Alaska/Schul- and Leistungsportszentrum Berlin HS) to tie the match at 23. However the Eagles got the final two points to hand the ‘Swords their first set loss since Sept. 2 at Cal State Los Angeles.
 
Chaminade came out in the fourth set and assumed a 14-9 advantage. However, Biola roared back with five straight points to take an 18-16 edge and, later, was up 23-22 and threatened to force a fifth set. But Colombo put down her final kill to tie the set, then forced an Eagles attack error. At aloha ball, Schilling and Pe’a blocked Aubele back to secure the ‘Swords’ victory.
 
Pe’a added nine kills while Lataisia Saulala (Morgan Hil, Calif./Oakwood) added six and a block solo. Alexia Byrnes (Chicago/Youngstown State/Saint Francis HS) added six kills, 40 assists, 11 digs, two aces and a block solo. Nanna Inoue (Kula, Maui, Hawai’i/Tyler JC/King Kekaulike HS) also provided 11 digs for Chaminade which hit .341 in the match with 54 kills. They also had nine aces.
 
Biola was held to a .151 percentage in the match with 47 kills on the night.
 
The Silverswords will be at Concordia University Irvine on Wednesday with first set for 4 p.m. Hawai’i time.