SIOUX FALLS, S.D.—The bright lights of a first trip to the NCAA Volleyball Championships didn’t phase the Point Loma Sea Lions in the least as they rolled to a 25-16, 25-21, 25-16 quarterfinal victory over Bentley at the Sanford Pentagon.

Playing in front a nationwide audience on ESPN+, the Sea Lions improved to 28-4 and will advance to play on Friday at 2 pm PT against the winner of today’s next match between Gannon and Concordia-St. Paul.

The #3 seed Sea Lions used a balanced attack to sweep the Falcons, who were making their third straight NCAA appearance after reaching the semifinals in 2024.

Saren Rogers led the NCAA West Region champs with 14 kills, followed by Krya Miles who had eight kills and five block assists. Abigail Nua had seven kills, and Jill Leslie added six. Macy Reynolds bolstered the defense with 17 digs and Haley Wilson had 11. Quarterback Sophia Baugh had 34 assists, three kills and nine digs.

Overall, the Sea Lions had 17 total blocks and seven service aces.

“We rely on our middles a lot,” head coach Jonathan Scott said in between sets two and three. “We have a lot of different weapons and try to move things around.”

Point Loma has had a lot of pressure-packed situations over the last month, winning four and five set matches in conference play, the PacWest tournament and regional championships. This was their first three-set win since Oct. 14 against Azusa Pacific.

Point Loma started out as cool as the snow outside the Sanford Pentagon. They trailed 6-2 in the first set before running off seven straight points to take a 9-6 lead. They wouldn’t trail again in the set, moving out to a 17-10 lead before finishing at 25-16. Miles had five kills in the first set without an attack error and Rogers had four. PLNU had 15 kills to six for Bentley in the first set.

The Sea Lions fell behind again in the second set 6-1 and 8-2, but then righted the ship to tie the set at 12-12 on a Rogers kill during a 6-0 run. Down the back end of the set, it was close, with the Falcons pulling to 22-21, but Point Loma closed out behind two Nua kills and an ace by Kira Federico to finish the set.

The third set was all Sea Lions as they jumped out to an 8-2 lead. They held off a couple of Bentley runs before capping the set and match with kills by Leslie and Clark and an error by the Falcons.

Bentley, who had won 24 straight matches, ends their season at 27-5. Point Loma now moves on to the semifinals for the first time in school history. The Sea Lions are the first Pacific West Conference team to reach the Final Four since BYU-Hawaii got to the finals in 2013. The Seasiders won the NCAA title in 1999 and 2002, and Hawaii Pacific did the same in 1998 and 2000.