COSTA MESA – Sophomore Viktoria Dickson collected a season-high 11 kills on .429 hitting to catapult the Vanguard women's volleyball team to its seventh straight win, a sweep of Westcliff on Thursday at Orange Coast College.
The 15th-ranked Lions won by scores of 25-19, 25-16, 25-15 in a match that lasted an hour and 25 minutes.
Morgan Cole had 10 kills, Callie Bickmore added eight kills and Kayla Robinson posted six kills with just one error in 12 attempts in helping VU improve to 9-1 on the season.
In their season opener, the Warriors got seven kills from Serena Comer.
Natalie Escher provided five of VU's 11 aces – the second-most in a match this season – and added a match-best 21 digs. It was Escher's fourth match with 20 or more digs.
Madeline DeLucia had three aces, 15 assists and eight digs, while Rachel Lim handed out 20 assists to go along with eight digs.
Freshman Kylie Proctor amassed a match-high six total blocks.
What Happened?
Set 1 – Trailing 5-3 early on, the Lions blitzed the Warriors with a 9-0 run. Cole and Bickmore started the siege with kills, and Escher reeled off three straight service aces to give the Lions a 12-5 lead.
The Warriors stopped VU's momentum briefly with two straight points, but the Lions scored four in a row with the last two coming courtesy of DeLucia aces.
Leading 16-7, the Lions dropped five of the next six points as Westmont climbed to within 17-12. However, the Lions went up 20-12 on a Kayla Robinson kill, Jenesis Rios ace and Bailey Olbur kill. The Warriors battled back behind a 5-0 run to force a VU timeout.
Dickson restored order with a big kill out of the timeout, and Olbur and Bickmore followed with an assisted stuff of Comer. The Lions polished off the set with three straight points, punctuated by a Cole throw down for the 25-19 win.
Set 2 – Cole had three kills as part of a 4-0 VU run that staked the Blue and Gold to a 7-3 lead.
The Warriors got as close as three points at 12-9, 14-11 and 15-12, but the Lions punched back with a 7-2 run to push the lead to 22-14. Robinson and Dickson had two kills each during the run.
Westcliff lopped a couple of points off the deficit, but VU ended the set with three straight as Adeline Galvanoni and Proctor teamed up for a block, followed by a Warrior error and a Dickson kill.
The Lions hit a match-best .267 (16-4-45) in the set, holding the Warriors to just .020 (8-7-49) efficiency.
Set 3 – Vanguard toyed with the Warriors in the third set, breaking out to leads of 3-0 and 6-1. Proctor recorded three straight blocks to start the set, combining with Bickmore on the first two and carrying out the solo act on the third.
Following a Westcliff point, Bickmore slammed three straight kills.
The Lions eventually stretched the lead to 13-5, forcing a Warrior timeout. VU proceeded to score five of the next seven points out of the break to lead 18-7.
The Warriors could trim the deficit to no further than seven. Kate Phillips had two kills late for the Lions, and Dickson finished off the match with back-to-back putaways for the 25-15 triumph.
Dickson had five of her 11 kills in the third set.
Why Is It Important?: No letdown for the Lions, who learned of their No. 15 ranking in the NAIA poll earlier this week. It is the program's highest ranking since checking in at No. 13 on Sept. 4, 2018.
What's Next?: The Lions travel to San Marcos for the USK Labor Day Tourney this Saturday to face Friends (Kan.) and Carroll College at noon and 4:00 p.m., respectively.
