Dixie State University women’s volleyball continued its strong conference play this week by notching three road wins in just four days.
DSU came into the week with a two-game winning streak after a month-long homestand. The Storm faced the Sunbirds of Fresno Pacific University.
The Sunbirds fought valiantly, but the Storm’s towering front line proved to be too much to handle. Four DSU strikers finished the game with 10 or more kills, led by freshman outside hitter Taylor Duryea’s 15.
“We came into this week with a lot of confidence,” said Duryea, a communication major from Logan. “We believed we were the better team, and we came in and got it done.”
Senior libero Alex Anderson recorded a game-high 32 digs and junior setter Kailey Frei had 50 assists en route to the 3-2 win.
The Storm moved onto another conference matchup against Holy Names University in Oakland, California. Unlike the FPU match, this one was not close.
DSU dominated from start to finish against the conference bottom feeder Hawks, winning 3-0 in consecutive sets, 25-14, 25-22 and 25-10.
At .409, the Storm tallied their second highest hitting percentage of the season in the win. Head coach Robyn Felder said she was happy with the way her team played.
“We are playing as a team so well right now,” Felder said. “Our goal from the start of this trip was to go 3-0, and this was a good start for us.”
DSU achieved that goal on the following night against Dominican University. This game, however, was not quite as easy as the last.
Although the Storm swept the Penguins, they didn’t do it effortlessly. The 25-21 set one win was in doubt early on as Dominican led the way before DSU turned the tables.
The second was more friendly to the Storm, as they led throughout and won 25-20 before the battle that was the deciding third set.
Both teams battled throughout, but the Storm came out on top 30-28, icing the Penguins rally. Duryea and junior outside hitter Delayne Daniel each led the Storm with 11 kills.
With eight kills and seven blocks, six-foot-two junior middle blocker Lindsay Jones paced DSU defensively as it held the Penguins to a season-low opponent hitting percentage of .044.
With the victory, DSU extended its winning-streak to five games and now sits just one win out of first place in the Pacific West Conference.
The Storm will round out their conference road swing next week against Azusa Pacific University Oct. 30 and Concordia University on Halloween night.