Women’s Volleyball – Sat, Sep. 10, 2022 at 9:35 AM
SAN MARCOS, Calif. – Serena Choi recorded the first triple-double in program history, but the University of California, Merced women’s volleyball team fell in five sets to University of Saint Katherine on Friday night, 3-2 (25-23, 18-25, 25-20, 23-25, 14-16).
Choi finished with 22 assists, ten kills and ten digs to make UC Merced (3-5, 1-1) history. Her ten kills marked a career-high, putting an exclamation point on the program’s first ever triple-double. Her 22 assists led all players.
Choi’s triple-double came just 24 hours after her third career double-double. Both Thursday’s and Friday’s matches went the distance, marking the first time since October of 2018 that the Bobcats played back-to-back five set matches.
Olanasaze Ojo shared match-high and tied her career-high with 15 kills in the setback. Hannah Dillingham contributed ten kills and became the first Bobcat to post back-to-back double figure kill matches this season. Dillingham and Ojo also had two blocks.
Semiramis Tanasecu tallied a career-high six blocks, one-upping her previous high of five from this year’s season opener.
Other Bobcats with strong outings and career-high’s include Jalen Carey, Destiny Lei Ramilo and Tea Bishop. Carey and Lei Ramilo pitched in 20 digs each, while Bishop was good for 15 digs. Friday night marked the first match since 2018 in which at least two Bobcats recorded 20 digs. Lei Ramilo also had two service aces.
Other notables include 13 assists and eight digs from Bianca Malaluan, and five kills and two blocks each from Valentina Evans and Teola Nowak. Evans was responsible for the Bobcats lone solo block.
Overall, the Bobcats finished with season-high’s of 84 digs, 53 kills, and 47 assists.
The first set was tight throughout as neither team held a lead larger than three points for 49 of the 50 rallies. The Bobcats held the only four-point lead after a 4-0 run to go up 17-13. Saint Katherine scored four in a row of their own to even the score up again at 17. The set was also tied at 22-22 before Nowak and Ojo put together back-to-back kills to put the Bobcats in position for set point.
The second set was very similar to the first early on with a narrow scoring margin, however Saint Katherine pulled ahead with an 8-1 run to grab a 19-13 advantage with multiple kills and service aces with libero Camille Harvey behind the service line. The hosts lead grew to eight points before the period came to an end.
Nowak started the…
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