Seattle University obliterated the old school record for team hitting percentage in a single match by 50 percentage points, closing out the Western Athletic Conference regular season schedule with a 3-0 victory (25-14, 25-16, 28-26) over UT Rio Grande Valley Saturday afternoon in a league volleyball contest at the Seattle Academy Gymnasium.
The Redhawks converted on their first nine attack attempts and did not make an attack error at all in the opening set, finishing with 48 kills against just seven attack errors in 89 attempts for a .461 hitting percentage. That is 50 points higher than the previous mark of .411 (47-8-95) set against UC Riverside Aug. 31, 2013, James Finley’s third match as head coach at Seattle U.
“It was a really good team performance today. I was really happy with the young players, as Mila (Duarte), Maja (Stojanovic), and Cecilia (Wu) all played really well,” said Finley. “It was fun for Martina (Samadan) to get a three-set win on Senior Day, especially because she was able to get some kills down the stretch. This was good preparation for us as we head into the tournament, as this is the type of offensive effort we need to produce to be successful.”
The first set went back-and-forth until Seattle U took advantage of a couple of UTRGV errors to pull ahead, 7-5. The Redhawks slowly extended their lead throughout the set, going 12-for-18 on attack attempts without an error for a .667 hitting percentage, while the Vaqueros compiled four attack errors, three service errors, and three reception errors to give Seattle U the opening set, capped by a kill from Mila Duarte (Lima, Peru).
Seattle U took the early lead in the second set, featuring consecutive kills by Cecilia Wu (Green Brook, N.J.). Matea Mamic (Split, Croatia) earned three straight service aces later in the set, a kill by Duarte brought about set points, and a Vaquero error clinched the second set for the Redhawks.
In the third set, Seattle U took a 6-4 lead on two kills apiece by Maja Stojanovic (Cacak, Serbia), Duarte, and Martina Samadan (Split, Croatia). UTRGV responded with a 6-0 scoring run, led by two kills from Bojana Mitrovic, but the Redhawks came right back with five unanswered points, featuring a block assist and two kills from Mamic.
UTRGV (11-18, 4-10 WAC) retook the lead at 17-15 on a service ace by Fatoumata Dacosta and a kill by Alisha Watson, but two kills from Samadan and one from Mamic put the Redhawks back on top, 19-18. The two teams would exchange points until consecutive kills by Mitrovic allowed the Vaqueros to serve for the set. Samadan earned back-to-back kills to extend the set, and a Vaquero attack error ended the match in Seattle U’s favor.
Mamic led the Redhawks with 15 kills and six service aces, as she hit .414 in the match. Samadan finished with 10 kills, a .421 hitting percentage, and five digs, while Duarte contributed a season-high 10 kills with just one attack error in 16 attempts for a .562 hitting percentage. Stojanovic was 7-of-13 in attack attempts for a .538 hitting percentage, setter Kerry Lane (Tucson, Ariz.) dished out 41 assists to go along with two kills and five digs, and libero Iris Ivanis (Pozega, Croatia) led all players in the match with 12 defensive digs.
Mitrovic led the Vaqueros with 11 kills, followed by Watson with seven kills. Tina Sekulic came on as the setter in the second set and collected 18 assists, while Dacosta led UTRGV with 10 defensive digs.
The Redhawks finished the WAC schedule with a 9-5 record, the team’s highest league winning percentage (.643) since joining the conference. Seattle U ended up in a tie for third place with Utah Valley in the final regular season standings, but the Redhawks will be the fourth seed in next week’s WAC Tournament, as Utah Valley won the tiebreaker due to a victory over second-place CSU Bakersfield.
Seattle University (17-10, 9-5 WAC) will face fifth seed Missouri-Kansas City in the first round of the WAC Volleyball Tournament Thursday, Nov. 19, at 7:30 p.m. local time (5:30 p.m. Pacific time). The match will be shown live on the WAC Digital Network (www.wacsports.com/live).