FULLERTON – Hope International women's volleyball started strongly, but struggled to maintain the momentum in a 25-23, 11-25, 19-25, 18-25 loss to visiting La Sierra on Saturday at Darling Pavilion.
The Royals held the Golden Eagles (7-9, 3-4 GSAC) to .000 hitting in the tight set one victory. But La Sierra hit .400 or better in each of the next three sets. The visitors also fired off 10 service aces, while the Royals hit just .118 for the match.
Maylynn Mitchell and Sofia Green tallied 18 and 16 kills, respectively, to lead the Golden Eagles.
HIU received 10 kills and 11 digs apiece from Manaia Mamea and Sabrina Galassi. Kaylani Moncada led the back row effort with 15 digs, while Rita Nua handed out 21 assists. The Royals had seven aces, led by Manaia Mamea's four.
HIU opened up a 19-14 lead in set one. But a series of errors enabled La Sierra to go on a 7-1 run and lead 21-20. Genevieve Kertz, who had five block assists and helped the Royals own a 11.5-3.0 advantage in blocks, helped the home team respond. She combined with Galassi and Nua to stuff the Golden Eagles on back-to-back plays, as HIU reached set point at 24-22.
Galassi ended the set and secured the 25-23 win with her third kill.
The Golden Eagles used an early 6-0 run to build a 9-1 lead in set two. La Sierra had six service aces in the set and won 25-11.
The Royals faced an early deficit in set three but fought back to tie the score at 11-11 on a Manaia Mamea kill. She then had another kill and three service aces as part of a 5-0 run that handed HIU a 17-14 advantage.
Trailing 19-18, La Sierra scored the final seven points to grab a 2-1 lead in the match. Green had three kills and Julissa Rodriguez added two during the late burst.
In set four, HIU took an early lead and maintained the edge until 8-7. But La Sierra notched five of the next six points to open up a 12-9 lead and never looked back. Alexsandra Augustyniak had four late kills to push the Golden Eagles to the 25-18 victory.
HIU, which fell to 5-10 overall and 3-3 in conference play, hosts Embry-Riddle (Ariz.) next Saturday at 2:00 p.m.
