College Roundup: VU women’s volleyball wins twice

WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL

Concordia Tournament

Vanguard University swept its two matches to complete play at the Labor Day Festival on Saturday at Vanguard.

The No. 22-ranked Lions topped Azusa Pacific, 25-22, 25-23, 25-18, in the morning match, before handling Westminster of Utah, 25-17, 25-23, 23-23 to improve to 7-3. The Lions won all five matches in the tournament.

Senior Jessica Neves led the attack in both contests Saturday, collecting 15 kills against Westminster and sharing team-high honors with Taylor Jackson against APU (nine). Neves had eight blocks and four aces against Westminster and contributed two aces and three blocks against APU.

Lauren Hays had 33 assists against Westminster, 58 on the day, while senior Kelly Heenan, a Newport Harbor High product, had 18 digs in each match for the Lions.

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Queen City Classic

CINCINNATI, Ohio - UC Irvine won the battle from the service line, firing 10 aces to Duquesne’s four and used a .258 hitting percentage to come away with a 25-19, 25-20, 21-25, 25-16 decision against the defending Atlantic-10 champion Dukes at the Queen City Classic for the Anteaters’ first win of the year.

UCI (1-2) was bested in blocks (7-4) and digs (57-53) but put away 61 kills while holding the Dukes to a .204 clip and 38 kills. Four Anteaters hit double-figures in kills, led by Marisa Bubica, who registered a match-high 18 kills while hitting .308.

Cassidy Pickrell added 13 kills and committed just two errors to hit .423 to go along with a match-best three aces. Arielle Manz was errorless on offense, converting 11 of 21 attempts to hit .524 and totaled a pair of aces as well as three block assists. Allison Lee contributed a double-double of 11 kills and 11 digs while Arden Davis led all players with 19 digs.

In an earlier match Saturday, the Anteaters fell, 25-23, 25-22, 25-23, to Cincinnati, despite firing 11 service aces.