Even with their starters resting in the final set, it only took three sets (25-5, 25-6, 25-16) for the Park University Gilbert women's volleyball team to finish off the winless Pacific Union College and secure their 10th straight victory.
"They came in, they took care of business. I gave them a couple personal and team goals and what I thought they could accomplish and they blew it out of the water," head coach Clay Webb said. "They did everything I asked them to do. They were really fundamentally sound on blocking, good on defense and we didn't give away unnecessary points with our own unforced errors."
Staying true to the game plan certainly worked in the Bucs favor, as sets one and two were not only some of the most dominant of the season, but in Buccaneers history. Before today, the Bucs had only held an opponent to fewer than 10 points in a set one time against SAGU-AIC last season. The Pioneers' set one and two scores did not only mark the second and third instances of a Buccaneers' opponent being held to single-digit points; five and six points were the fewest points ever allowed in a set by the Bucs.
In just two sets of play, middleblocker Makenna Busse racked up 10 kills, one dig and two block assists; she also had a .625 hitting percentage. Miranda Bacon and Autumn Wood had six kills each with eight and four digs respectively, while Jenifer Lauer notched 22 assists and four digs. Defensively, Hattie Patton had a game-high eight digs.
With the match well in hand, several Buccaneers who had not seen the court all season, including Lynniece Andrews, Cierra Bevilockway and Jasmine Urban, got a chance to enter the game and made the most of their opportunity.
The group came out a bit rusty and fell behind 8-3 early. They found their rhythm when a kill by Urban sparked a 14-0 run; she had two kills during that run and finished the game with five, but it was Georgia Romine-Black who the Pioneers could not stop. Five of the 14 points during that run came from kills by Romine-Black, who finished the game tied with Busse for a game-high 10; she also hit .471.
Bevilockway added a whopping 17 kills in just one set of play with her final one coming off of Andrews' game-sealing kill. Other Bucs who saw their first playing time of the season in the final set included Daniella Miranda-Johnson, Sabrina Garces, Lexi Golleher, Avery Turk and Ximena Aguilar.
"I love seeing some of the girls get in there and play simply because they're not always getting an opportunity during the season," Webb said. "They work really, really, really hard in practice and I think they're deserving of getting in there when the opportunity is there."
The Buccaneers have two more matches with the Pioneers tomorrow starting at 11 a.m., where they will clinch the CalPac regular season championship with just one win.
