Box Score NAMPA, Idaho – Junior
Kate Even returned from injury to make an immediate impact for Dominican women's volleyball, helping it to a 3-1 (25-22, 25-15, 21-25, 25-23) victory Thursday over Simon Fraser at Johnson Sports Center.
Even led the Penguins (1-4) with a double-double of 18 kills on a .211 hitting percentage and 17 digs, along with three service aces. Senior
Aimee Steinwand contributed her own double-double of 17 kills and 20 digs, and freshman
Hana Wyles had 19 digs in the match.
Kirsten Pinkney led the Clan (1-4) with 12 kills and 11 digs and Jayme Bratsberg added 21 digs for SFU.
Dominican hit .181 for the match while holding Simon Fraser to a .141 hitting percentage. The Penguins also finished with 13 blocks and eight aces.
Dominican jumped ahead early with two kills each from Even and Steinwand to take a 5-1 lead. However, Simon Fraser battled back slowly to take a 15-14 lead in the middle of the set. Even and Steinwand again led the charge on a late 7-2 run to change the momentum and Even ended the set with an ace for the 25-22 victory.
The Clan took an early 2-1 lead in the second set, but attack errors swung the momentum to the Penguins in a dominant second set.
Cat Thomason recorded a kill and a block assist to help Dominican out to a 9-5 lead. A 6-0 run extended the lead to 17-8 for the Penguins and they led by as much as 12 points in the set. Steinwand finished the 25-15 victory with a kill to put Dominican within a set of the victory.
Simon Fraser would not go down easy with a back and forth battle in the third set. The Penguins had an early 6-4 lead thanks to back-to-back kills by Wyles and senior
Susanna Pilkerton, but Simon Fraser took command at 18-17 after a ball handling error by Dominican. A kill by Betsie de Beer gave Simon Fraser the 25-21 third set victory.
The fourth set was the closest between the two teams.
Catherine Johnson found the floor on two kills to give Dominican an early 5-4 lead, but Simon Fraser responded with a four-point run of their own. After trading points Dominican took a timeout trailing 23-22,
Eleni Loizou had a kill to tie the match and a service ace to set up the match point to turn the momentum. Steinwand then hammered home the match winner to take the fourth set 25-23.
Dominican will face the host, Northwest Nazarene University, of the D2 West Region Volleyball Showcase on Friday for their second match at 3 p.m. MST. Live stats and video will be available online.
