The Chico State volleyball team is in La Jolla competing in the Division II West Region Volleyball Showcase and is dominating the field through three matches.

Despite coming off of three straight losses during the Hawaii Challenge, Chico State bounced back.

After back-to-back sweeps against Montana State Billings and Saint Martin’s, the Wildcats had another strong outing against the Academy of Art.

“Sweeping both games yesterday was really good for our confidence,” Wildcat outside hitter Bekah Boyle said.

The team’s confidence was apparent and the first set of the match went well for Chico.

Their defense had very little problems early and had offensive success throughout the first. This led to a Wildcat’s win by a score of 25-12 and the team faced little pressure from the Academy of Art.

The second set, however, favored the Academy. The teams stayed close throughout the set and sent it to overtime.

Toward the end of the set, the Academy of the Arts pulled away and won 29-27. With the match split so far, the teams played in a pivotal third set and Chico was looking to rebound from their loss. The scores stayed close throughout the third set, the Wildcats were able to pull away, leading to a 25-20 win.

“They weren’t giving us anything that we couldn’t handle, once we got our focus back we were able to do the little things right,” Boyle said.

With a 2-1 set lead, the Wildcats were looking to close the Academy of the Art put in the fourth set. Neither team could secure a big lead, but later in the set, Chico State was able to get ahead by a few points and take control.

“We just had to up our communication and theta made the difference,” Boyle said.

The Wildcats will take the court again tomorrow against Concordia, in their final match of the D2 West Region Showcase.

Matthew Ferreira can be reached at [email protected] or @MattFerreira__ on Twitter.