IRVINE, Calif. — The No. 4-ranked Wayne State volleyball team had little trouble rolling through four opponents to start the season at the Golden Eagle Invitational over the weekend.
Wayne stumbled only once on the weekend in their opening match against Cal State East Bay, but came back strong to win the match in four sets, 25-27, 25-22, 25-22, 25-12.
Wayne State was up 16-12 in the first set before CSEB bounced back to take the first set.
The Wildcats began to take control late in the second set and pulled away by scoring the final 11 points in the fourth set to claim the three-set win.
Taya Beller hit .471 and had 19 kills to lead the Wayne State attack. She also had four blocks on defense. Maggie Brahmer hit .438 and had 17 kills and Kelsie Cada recorded 17 kills on .410 hitting.
Rachel Walker handed out 48 assists and libero Jordan McCormick recorded a team-high 22 digs in the win.
In their second match of the day, Wayne State took care of host Concordia-Irvine 25-11, 25-12, 25-17. Beller led a balanced attack with 14 kills and hit .565 in the win. Brahmer added nine kills while Cada, Laney Kathol and Channatee Robles each had seven kills. McCormick had 20 digs and Walker had 38 assists.
On Saturday, Wayne State swept both Cal State Dominguez Hills and Azusa Pacific to finish the 4-0 weekend.
In the 25-21, 25-8, 25-8 sweep of CSDH, Wayne State hit .333 in the match and had just five attack errors in 96 attempts.
Beller led the balanced attack with 10 kills and Cada added nine. McCormick had 14 digs and Walker had 25 assists.
In the finale, a 25-17, 25-13, 25-13 win over Azusa Pacific, the Wildcats held Azusa Pacific to mins-.027 hitting to breeze to the easy win. Beller had 14 kills and Brahmer added 11, with Walker recording 32 assists and McCormick picking up 12 digs.
In the match, Cada had five kills and 18 digs and became the eighth player in school history to record 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs in her career. She now has 1,021 kills and 1,018 digs.
The Wildcats are back in action next weekend at the Colorado Premier Challenge in Denver, Colo. They open play Friday at 11 a.m. against Texas Tyler, followed by a 7 p.m. match with No. 18-ranked Regis University. Play continues through Saturday.
