Hawks’ Estrada named GSAC defender of week

SANTEE – Facing their toughest match all year, the SDC Women’s Volleyball team performed admirably in a GSAC match against No. 1 Biola University on Tuesday.

The Eagles won in straight sets but not without scare, defeating the Hawks 25-18, 25-19, 25-16.

With the loss, SDC falls to 7-7 overall and 2-5 in GSAC play. Biola improves to a spotless 15-0 on the season and 7-0 in conference.

Charged with the adrenaline from home crowd, the Hawks opened to a modest 3-1 lead and led all the way until 10-9. Biola then took the lead for the first time at 11-10 and didn’t look back leading by as much as seven. The Hawks got it within four but the Eagles survived to claim the first.

Biola rode their momentum with the set win to streak out to a 5-0 lead to start off in Set 2. The Hawks would make a slight comeback as they scored 11 of the next 17 points to bring the deficit to within one at 12-11 in favor of Biola. SDC tied the score at 13-13 but again the Eagles broke away. BU tallied the last three points in the set for a 2-0 set lead.

Molly Witzmann accounted for the first two points in Set 3 in favor of the Hawks. She tallied a kill for the first point and was joined by Alli Beezer for a block to make it 2-0.  Biola found another answer, turning out a 7-0 lead to lead by five. Trailing 9-4, the Hawks again made things interesting with a 4-0 run to bring the score within one. Juliana Gutknecht tallied two of the four points with kills. Bevan Haskell‘s kill for the eighth point erupted the crowd, making it a game. But then, like they have been doing all night, the Eagles answered the wave of points from the Hawks to secure the win.

Gutknecht ended with a team-high eight kills. Beezer followed closely with seven. Ashlyn Riding finished with 27 assists and Witzmann registered four blocks.

The Hawks looks to get back in the win column as they host Arizona Christian on Saturday starting at 2 p.m. at the Boys and Girls Club.