SANTA ANA, Calif. - No. 13 Santa Ana Women's Volleyball went 1-1 in their Orange Empire Conference (OEC) matches last week to keep themselves in a tie for second place with a record of 16-4, 9-4.
On Tuesday, the Dons went on the road to face No. 9 Irvine Valley (17-4,13-1) in one of the biggest matchups of the season. IVC entered the night with a two game lead over Santa Ana in the OEC standings, making it a must win for the Dons.
With the pressure on, SAC started off hot and picked up a 25-17 win in the first set to take the lead. The second set was headed the same way with the Dons up by six points. But after a timeout, the Lasers responded and went on a big run to comeback and even the score with a 25-22 win in set two.
Although the Dons kept it close in the last two sets, they weren't able to pull off the upset and dropped the match by a score of 3-1 (17-25, 25-22, 25-16, 25-19).
Matilde Teixeira led the Dons in kills with 15 while adding nine assists, five digs and four aces on the night. Kassandra Zavala posted seven kills to go along with two solo blocks from the middle blocker position.
Four other Dons also collected multiple kills on the night as Andrea Sanchez, Kaiden Raif, Alison Caswell and Lea Mendez had five kills each.
Santa Ana returned home on Friday night to host the Fullerton Hornets (8-15, 4-9) in another OEC match. The Dons made quick work of the Hornets with a 3-0 (25-19, 25-17, 28-26) to earn their 16th win of the season.
Teixeira had yet another big night offensively as she represented the only player in the match with double-digits kills at 21. The sophomore from Portugal also posted seven assists while filling in at setter while playing in the back row.
Sophomore setter Kaiden Raif recorded a game high 29 assists to run the SAC offense. She played an all around game, helping out in almost every category with seven digs, two kills, an ace and a block assist.
The Dons also got a boost from sophomore Alison Caswell, who continued her consistent play with eight kills, seven digs and four aces on the night.
Santa Ana will go on the road for the last time in the regular season on Tuesday as they take on No. 16 Orange Coast in OEC action. The Dons will close out conference play after that with two home games against Santiago Canyon and Riverside on November 10th and 15th.
