Women's Volleyball
9/1/2007 - Royals start at .500, Lane named All-Tournament
The Royals started the season off by making a trip down to San Diego to play in the Seaside Invitational. The ladies finished 2-2 at the invitational.
Their first match was against GSAC rival #15 Point Loma Nazarene. The Sea Lions defeated the Royals 3-0. With the loss, Hope also fell to 0-1 in the GSAC. Sophomore Jillian Lane led the way with 9 kills and 13 digs. Freshmen Chantel Gardner also had 9 kills with a team high hitting percentage of .318. Freshman Larissa Niu had 23 assists. The downfall for the Royals was their team hitting percentage of just .025 while allowing the Sea Lions to hit .285 for the match.
Later in the day, the Royals picked up their first win of the season by beating Dominican in 5 games. Niu carried the team with 61 assists while distributing the ball to 7 different hitters for kills. Lane had 60 attempts and 23 kills to lead the hitting attack. Sophomore Debbie Beliakoff hammered out a .323 hitting percentage and 14 kills. Not to be outdone, Gardner banged out 12 kills. On defense, Freshman Jocelyn Moya led the way 21 digs while Sophomore Katrina Rosales had 4 blocks.
After going 1-1 on the day one, day two did not get any easier as the Royals faced off against #7 Madonna. The Crusaders defeated the Royals, 3-0, by stuffing just about everything that came near the net. The Crusaders finished the match with 24 team blocks. Inta Grinvalds contributed 7 blocks toward the cause. Whitney Fueling hit .440 for the match with 11 kills. For the Royals, Niu found herself one kill short of a triple-double as she dished out 27 assists, dug 10 balls, and to go with 9 kills. Lane pounded out 13 kills while Gardner pitched in with 9 and hit .330.
With the loss to Madonna, the Royals found themselves squaring off against Dominican in the consolation game. Hope wrapped up third place with a 3-1 win. Sophomore Amanda Elliott had a huge match with 18 kills on 52 attempts. With the Peguins’ defense having to focus on other hitters, Lane and Gardner had good games with 18 and 16 kills respectively. Niu had 58 assists while Freshmen Moya (16 digs) and Shaina Record (11 digs) help out on defense.
For her efforts, Jillian Lane was named to the All-Tournament Team. The sophomore had 66 kills (4.4 kills per game) and 55 digs in the four matches.
For the next game that counts towards their record, the Royals will find themselves traveling back down to San Diego to face off against GSAC Rival San Diego Christian on Saturday, September 8th.