UD Volleyball Splits with Schreiner on Saturday; Recognize Senior Gillian De La Cruz
IRVING, Texas - The University of Dallas volleyball team concluded its home slate with a split against Schreiner University on Saturday. The Crusaders earned a straight set sweep in the first game, although a pair of the sets were determined by two points.
In the second game, the Crusaders would be edged in four sets, but once again all the sets were decided within five or fewer points.
Both teams will remain even at 3-9 on the season.
After the second game, Senior Gillian De La Cruz (Lewisville, Texas) was honored as part of "Senior Day."
Match 1: Dallas wins 3-0 (25-19, 26-24, 25-23)
The Crusaders outdid Schreiner in kills in each set, highlighted by an impressive .308 hitting percentage thanks to 18 kills and two errors over 52 attempts in the third set.
Set one Dallas rebounded from a slight deficit to go on an 8-2 run to take a four-point lead (13-9). The surge eventually led to a 20-13 advantage and the Crusaders grabbed the early set by six points.
The next two sets went back-and-forth. In the middle one, the Crusaders rattled five straight points to go in front 22-18. The Mountaineers countered with three points to get within one and would stay alive with three more points after UD had gotten a kill from Abigail Porras (El Paso, Texas) and block assist from Faith Daniels (San Antonio, Texas) and Isabel Garcia (San Antonio, Texas) to make it set-point. Deadlocked at 24, Porras put the Crusaders on top with a kill and an attack error by Schreiner gave UD a 2-0 lead.
The third set saw Dallas score five points after a 3-0 deficit. The largest lead was four, and the majority of the way the Crusaders held a three-point spread. However, the Crusaders never fell behind after the early hole and would claim the victory.
Dayjah Whyte (Round Rock, Texas) led the team with 11 kills and hit .375 thanks to a pair of errors in 24 attempts. Porras also eclipsed double-digits in kills with 10. Cassie Dyoub (Frisco, Texas) contributed a personal-high in kills with nine.
Larissa Ramirez (San Antonio, Texas) and Paiten Baesa (Rockwall, Texas) combined for 37 assists with 20 and 17, respectively.
Moriah Delgado (Fort Worth, Texas) surpassed 30 digs for the first time in her career and ended the triumph with 33. Baesa had 14 for a double-double in digs and assists, while Ellise Anable (Phoenix, Ariz.) rounded out a trio of UD players in double figures for digs with 13. As a team, Dallas edged the Mountaineers 78-70 in digs.
Schreiner did not have a single player in double-digits for kills, but were led by Kayla Lofland with nine. She nearly had a double-double with 12 digs. A quartet of players had five kill. Jacqueline Sneed had four kills and blocks and the team had five total blocks thanks to 10 individual block assists.
Match 2: Schreiner wins 3-1 (25-20, 23-25, 25-22, 25-21)
Unlike the first matchup, the Mountaineers were much sharper offensively and the only set UD held an advantage on kills was the second set, which the home team claimed victorious with a 17-13 edge.
After jumping out to a 3-1 lead, capped by a service ace by Baesa, Schreiner knotted things at three and would exchange points over the next several serves. After a deadlock at seven, the mountaineers scored six-of-seven points to go up 13-8. Porras got a kill to get UD to side-out, but Schreiner rattled three more points in a row and would hold a six-point lead that eventually grew to nine (22-13). Dallas fought back to narrow the gap, but the guests got the early set lead.
Baesa had another early ace, this time for the first Crusader points. After that Daniels tallied a kill to give UD a 2-0 lead. It was another set that went back-and-forth match that had Dallas lead slightly in the beginning. Schreiner had a 5-1 spurt put the visitors up as many as three (14-11), its largest margin of the frame. Down 17-15, head coach Kelli Trautmann called a Dallas timeout. From there it was all UD, as Whyte and Porras recorded kills for consecutive points to level the score. After a Schreiner point. Porras got the ball back for Dallas with a kill and a couple of errors followed by another kill for the junior stretched the lead to 21-18. The Crusaders got to a 24-20 lead, but the SU rallied with three straight points to make things interesting. A hitting error led Dallas exhale a sigh of relief as the sets were even now.
Dallas fell behind in the third set early and would trail by as many as seven (14-7). Down 17-11, the Crusaders attempted to rally back with five points in a row to get within one. Kills by Daniels and Porras made it a 21-19 Dallas edge, but the Mountaineers got a kill from Brooke Byer, ace from Giselle Flores, and then kill by Lofland. A service error tied things at 22, but the next three points allowed Schreiner to go up 2-1.
A similar story in the fourth set happened, as the Mountaineers moved to a 14-10 lead and Dallas would seek a comeback to try to stay alive. Kills by Abby Medico (Tulsa, Okla.), Anable, Whyte were part of a 6-0 run that turned the lead back to UD. Dallas later went up 19-16, but the Mountaineers benefitted from some errors to help put the score at a deadlock. SU would scored nine of the last 11 points to earn the win. Amanda Combs was in on blocks on two straight plays to swing the momentum at 21-20 and 22-20. Byer Brooke and Jacquelyn Sotello were also on the respective plays.
Porras paced Dallas with 12 kills and hit .273 in the game. Medico notched double figures in kills with her personal-high of 10. Anable and Whyte each had nine, while Dyoub contributed seven. Anable's total in kills was a season-best to go with 20 digs, which tied a season-best with a home match against Austin College.
Delgado had the top number of digs for Dallas with 26, but the duo of Anable and her combined for 46 of the team's 78. No other UD individuals were in double-digits in that category. Baesa put up a career-high 26 assists and led Dallas that match. Ramirez was right behind and did a good job splitting time with 20 assists.
Schreiner was led by Lofland with a game-high 21 kills. Combs chipped in 10 and hit .320 as a percentage. De Hoyos had 26 assists, and Reyes made a team-high 24 digs.
Dallas finishes the regular season at Texas Lutheran University on April 10. Games are scheduled for 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
