The Sonoma State women’s volleyball team opened the Seawolf/Gator Classic with two 3-1 victories over the visiting Chico State Wildcats and Dominican University Penguins. The Penguins responded to the Seawolves first set victory with a tight win in the second, but Sonoma cleaned up their early mistakes and put it away with two straight set wins. 

Sonoma looked a little shaky after losing their second set, and the miscues carried over into the third.  Multiple serves hit the net and bounces didn’t go their way on good blocks from kill attempts at the net.  

“After losing the second set it was all about going out and playing clean, keeping our serves in the court, and just letting Dominican make the mistakes,” Said senior Outside hitter Emily Eaton.

The score was still knotted at 11 despite multiple serves hitting the net and blocks by Sonoma that didn’t bounce their way.  Then, freshman Setter Brynna Slayton and the Seawolves went on a tear. Slayton, in her 7 serves, had 5 aces and 4 straight to lead 19-11.  After grabbing momentum on Slayton’s run of points, the Seawolves won the set in dominant fashion 25-15. 

The fourth set was back and forth from the first point to the last with Sonoma pulling it out 29-27 to win the match 3-1. After a long rally with multiple diving digs from both sides, Sophomore Riley Beyma set the ball up perfectly for Eaton to slam it home and seal the point making it 17-11. 

After a Dominican timeout, it looked like Sonoma had it wrapped up with momentum on their side.  Dominican came out firing though with an immediate kill from senior Outside Hitter Tiffany Wong and an ace from Junior Libero Vanna Marquez to grab back momentum.  

After being tied at 25, Wong and Eaton continued to trade kills running the score to 27-27.  Eaton had seen enough, after a vicious kill Junior Setter Jennifer Trephan  had a kill of her own setting up the serve for Eaton.  It was a perfect ace to seal the first victory of the year for the Seawolves. “Winning that first game was a great start to the tournament this weekend after a hard fight, I know we all want it so badly,” said Eaton on the home opening victory. 

For the second match of the Seawolf/Gator Classic, the Seawolves faced off against CCAA rival Chico State.  The Seawolves, who played their first tournament of the year in Seattle against tough opponents, felt ready for Chico State. “We are an extremely young team. We went to Seattle to play top teams in the region and get some experience at that level,” said Head Coach Bear Grassl.

“Chico will be a much better offensive team. We held Dominican to under 10 kills which usually is a win. We need to match Chico’s offense, and improve on the service line,” said Coach Grassl on what adjustments that need to be made. 

It was clear they had made the necessary changes, as the Seawolves had 13 aces to Chico State’s 4.  

After Sonoma won the first set 25-19, Chico State had everything clicking during the second.  Placing kills almost at will, either hammering them home or gently placing them in between the Seawolf defense. It was clear from the start that this just wasn’t the Seawolves’ set to win; they lost 25-16.  

Chico, riding high off their second set win, brought the energy, which is something the Seawolves needed to match in order to bring home the victory. “Chico is an aggressive team, and of course a longtime rival of Sonoma. I think we need to come out with high energy, stay low error, and be ready to put up a good fight and we will be in good shape. And of course, we need our fans out there making noise for us in the stands,” said Eaton.

Sonoma was up to the task, as they came out aggressive and carried the match all the way to the end.  In the end, the combination of Jennifer and Amy Trephan, Redshirt junior outside hitter, were too much. They accomplished enough kills to tie and seal the victory 28-26.

Yet again Sonoma was able to match Chico’s energy and were able to stomp out any momentum Chico thought they had.  After being tied at 22, the Seawolves cruised to victory, capped off by a clean kill from Redshirt sophomore Leilani Hallman.

The Seawolves finished off the Seawolf/Gator Classic with a loss to Academy of Art 3-1, and a 3-1 win over Holy Names University.  They’re back in the Wolves Den September 24th against rival Chico State