Point Loma and Biola played for first place in San Diego last week, and of course it went five sets. The Sea Lions took the win and also beat Azusa Pacific last week to earn Team of the Week. Anna Massari was a stopper up front again to earn Defender of the Week, and Chaminade's Leilani Ama led an efficient Silversword offense to three road wins to claim Player of the Week.

2023 Results/Schedule
2023 Standings
2023 Statistics
2023 AVCA National Poll
 
PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Chaminade's Leilani Ama, S, Fr., 6-1, Spokane, Wash.                                                                
Chaminade's Leilani Ama helped her team to three road wins from her setter's postion as the Silverswords took out Dominican, Academy of Art and Fresno Pacific. The 6-foot-1 freshman had 92 assists in 11 sets (8.36 per set) and added 31 digs, 11 kills, two aces and six total blocks. She had 29 assists in just three sets in a win over Academy of Art. She positioned her team to post very efficient attack numbers against Dominican (.275 attack percentage) and the Urban Knights (.280). On the season Ama averages 8.46 assists per set, second in the conference. The Silverswords now have 42 straight wins over teams from the northern California pod.

DEFENDER OF THE WEEK: Point Loma's Anna Massari, MB, Jr., 6-2, Las Vegas, Nev.                                                             
Point Loma needed Anna Massari to do normal Anna Massari things in their two huge matches at home last week against Azusa Pacific and Biola. She did. She had six blocks against the Cougars and added two solos and four block assists versus the Eagles. Additionally, she put down a season-high 19 kills against APU with a .455 attack rate and 2023-best 22 points. The 6-foot-2 middle now averages 1.31 blocks per set, tops in the PacWest and is eighth in points per set with 3.33.
 
TEAM OF THE WEEK: The Point Loma Sea Lions                                                                                                                            
The PacWest Team of the Week is Point Loma, who is now 8-0 in conference play after gigantic victories over Azusa Pacific (four sets ) and Biola (five sets). Against the Cougars, the Sea Lions moved to 7-0 with a 25-17, 25-27, 25-16, 25-17 victory, behind Anna Massari's 19 kills, one shy of her career high. The Sea Lions hit .354 as a team with Abigail Nua right behind Massari with 17 kills. Macy Reynolds had 18 digs on the defensive side for PLNU. That set up a showdown with Biola two nights later, with both teams coming into the match perfect at 7-0. The Sea Lions survived a first set loss and a big comeback by the Eagles in the fourth set to come away with a 18-25, 25-17, 25-23, 26-28, 15-8 win. Point Loma raced out to a 5-0 lead in the final set to flip the momentum. Nua had a double-double with 17-17, while PLNU's balanced attack was supplemented by Grace Hicks' 15 kills and Claire Smith's 15. Torina Hommes had 12 kills, eight blocks and four aces. The Sea Lions' 8-0 start is their second best beginning ever in the PacWest. 

PACWEST NEWS AND NOTES: Chaminade's five-set win over Fresno Pacific gave Silversword head coach Kahala Kabalis Hoke her 200th career win. Now in her 12th season, Kabalis Hoke is 201-124 all-time...Counting a Monday non-conference win at Stanislaus State, the Silverswords went 4-0 on their northern California trip...Chaminade is at No. 18 in this week's AVCA national poll. The west region teams listed are No. 13 CS San Bernardino, No. 16 Central Washington, No. 17 Cal Poly Pomona, No. 22 Seattle Pacific, and No. 23 CS Los Angeles. Point Loma and Biola are among other teams receiving votes... Hawai`i Pacific might have pulled off the upset of the week, topping Fresno Pacific in Fresno in four sets. The Sunbirds had a three-match win streak snapped and it was HPU's first conference win. The Sharks beat Dominican two days later to go 2-1 on their mainland trip...Paige Johnstone had 19 digs and five service aces in the 3-1 loss to Point Loma. She had 20 digs in APU's win over Westmont. In that Cougar win, APU had 17 total blocks, a PacWest season high. Kyra Palmbush had nine of them...Academy of Art picked up its first win after a string of five-set losses, taking out HPU in five. Maya McClellan had a double-double (17-11) as did Amalie Rupertova (16-19) for the Urban Knights...Before the loss to the Sharks, Fresno Pacific won its third straight five-set match, this time over Hawai`i Hilo...A few nights later, the Vulcans got back on the winning track with a straight sets win over Dominican with Samara Cruz leading the way with13 kills and six aces...Westmont picked up an upset win over Biola, taking out the Eagles in five sets on Saturday. Sara Krueger had 12 kills and hit .556 for the Warriors and Jessie Terlizzi had 18 digs...Tayllor Tullo had 17 kills for Hawai`i Hilo as they finished their mainland trip at 2-1 with a victory over Academy of Art. Cruz had a double-double with 15 kills and 19 digs.

RECORD BOOK WATCH: Azusa Pacific's Annaka Jorgenson now has 1,397 career kills (2019-23), which moves her up to seventh on the PacWest career list...Fresno Pacific's Corinne Acosta has 1,194 kills, 18th on the same list...Acosta had 1,440 digs, 15th all-time in the PacWest...Makena Ogas of the Sunbirds has 65 solo blocks, tenth all-time in the conference...Biola's Abigail Copeland is now second all-time in total blocks with 377, just five behind Azusa Pacific's Julianne Miller (2016-19). Copeland is also second in solo blocks with 107. Caitlin Torres of Notre Dame de Namur (2006-09) is the career leader with 120 

LOOKING AHEAD: A busy PacWest week starts today (Tuesday) with Concordia traveling to Azusa Pacific and Westmont making the trek to Point Loma. On Thursday, Hawai`i Pacific hosts Chaminade. On Friday, APU is at Fresno Pacific, Dominican is on the road at Westmont and Academy of Art goes to Concordia. Saturday's slate features Dominican at Concordia, Point Loma at Fresno Pacific, Academy of Art at Westmont and Chaminade at Hawai`i Hilo.