Matadors Volleyball down Badgers 3-1 to win second straight

YUMA, Ariz. – The Arizona Western Matadors Volleyball team (2-0) picked up its second win of the season, beating Snow College (1-1) 3-1 on Friday night at the House Gymnasium on the second day of the Chapman Automotive Volleyball Invitational.

Gabriela Martensson and Natalia Valencia-Gamboa combined for 25 kills as the Matadors won their second straight match to open the season.

Snow College put together an early advantage in the first set, taking a 6-3 lead. The Matadors scored eight of the next nine points to take an 11-7 lead on a Natalia Valencia-Gamboa kill and went on to win the first set 25-18.

Valencia-Gamboa finished the night with the second most kills with 12 while Nahir Erimez ended the match with 36 assists.

After Snow took an early lead in the second set, Arizona Western battled back to take a 3-2 lead. Snow jumped out to a 16-10 lead, eventually growing the advantage to 22-14, forcing an Arizona Western timeout. Following the timeout, Arizona Western closed the game to three points at 22-17 with a 3-0 scoring run. Snow finished the set-off, evening the match with a 25-19 win in the second set.

Martensson was the team leader in kills for a second consecutive night with 13 and Rana Yamada had 12 digs.

The Matadors and Badgers went back-and-forth early in the third set with the Matadors taking an early 7-5 lead on a Snow attacking error. Valencia-Gamboa upped the lead to 13-6 with a kill and the Matadors eventually pushed the lead to eight points at 14-6. The Matadors used a 3-0 run to close the set out at 25-17.

After falling behind 4-2 in the fourth set, Arizona Western rattled off four straight points to take a 6-4 lead. Esther Asiedu had back-to-back aces to push the lead to 12-9. Ma'o Lauhingoa extended the lead to 15-10 with an ace as the Matadors pulled away to take the fourth set 25-14, winning the match 3-1.

The Matadors return to the court, on Saturday, August 24, hosting Cisco College at 1:00 pm on the final day of the Chapman Automotive Volleyball Invitational at the House Gymnasium. Tickets are $5.00 for adults and $3.00 for seniors while Arizona Western College students get in free with their AWC ID.