Wolves Finish SoCal Tour With Win

The team will leave Tuesday for Texas, taking on St. Edwards on Wednesday and then will play four matches in San Antonio at tournament hosted by Incarnate Word.

Salem-News.com

LA JOLLA, Calif. - The Western Oregon volleyball team ended a three-day run at the UC San Diego Invitational with a win over Cal State Dominguez Hills on Saturday afternoon at the RIMAC Arena, 3-2.

The Wolves will back to Oregon with a 1-4 record, but they are also battle-tough after playing four teams ranked in the NCAA Division II Top 20.

Saturday against the Toros, coach Joe Houck’s squad battled to a 30-17, 28-30, 30-27, 25-30, 15-9 victory to get on the winning track for the first time in 2006. Katrina Johnson led four players in double-figure kill totals with 15, followed by Shakira Jenkins with 13, Lisa Martini with 11 and Brianne Sykes with 10. Johnson had a .433 attack percentage.

Claire Carpenter had 24 digs on the defensive side of the net, while the Wolves as a team had 18 total blocks. Martini led the way with six block assists.

Penina Suddeth led Cal State Dominguez (now 2-3 on the year) with 15 kills.

Maria Miranda had 23 digs for the Toros.

In the first game, WOU hit .448 and led from start to finish in cruising to the 30-17 win. The Wolves had four blocks, and played their most complete game of the tournament.

In the second contest, the Toros jumped out to a 7-2 lead, but WOU battled back to take a 15-14 margin. CSUDH then inched ahead and held a two-to-three point margin until the Wolves battled back to 28-28 on a Johnson kill.

But a Toro kill and a WOU error closed out the game and gave Dominguez Hills a 30-28 margin.

In the third game, WOU led the entire way, other than a 23-23 tie.

But back-to-back kills by Amy Heron and Keyanna Jenkins put WOU up to stay, and Johnson closed out the game with a kill.

But the fourth game belonged to the Toros, as they never trailed in breaking out to a 6-1 lead.

They led by as many as nine points and the Wolves would get no closer than four down the stretch.

In the nerve-racking fifth and final game, CSUDH scored the first point but the Wolves then scored the next five and never trailed again.

The Toros would get no closer than four points as the Wolves hit .375 in the game.

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