SportsVolleyball

Leopards rally to defeat CMS

La Verne senior outside hitter, Lynsey Best (#5), hits over Master's College middle blocker Kati Lehr (#14) during the first game on Tuesday night, at Master's College in Santa Clarita. Stacey Hudson (#3) looks on for Master's College. La Verne lost their match in three games, 15-3, 15-13, 15-7 to move their record 5-10 overall. / photo by Ian Gratz
La Verne senior outside hitter, Lynsey Best (#5), hits over Master’s College middle blocker Kati Lehr (#14) during the first game on Tuesday night, at Master’s College in Santa Clarita. Stacey Hudson (#3) looks on for Master’s College. La Verne lost their match in three games, 15-3, 15-13, 15-7 to move their record 5-10 overall. / photo by Ian Gratz

by Damien Alarcon
Staff Writer

After losing the first two games of the match, the University of La Verne women’s volleyball team improved its offensive attack to defeat the Claremont Athenas last Friday in the Supertents.

The Leopards won the rest in the best of five, 13-15, 12-15, 15-6, 15-11 and 15-9, respectively. The win improves their record to 5-10 overall and 2-1 in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC).

Concerning the first two games, head coach Don Flora said, “I was looking for the right offense. We didn’t quite have our offense going. I thought we should have beaten them in those games since we were up in both of them.” Flora is serving his first year as head coach, replacing Jim Paschal.

As expected, La Verne had a dominating lead in the first game, 9-3, until Claremont middle blocker Michelle Emmert blocked an attempted kill by junior Sarah Henry to get the Athenas a side out.

Claremont rallied to tie the score at 9-9. From there, both teams exchanged serves and kept the score within a two-point difference. Claremont won, 15-14, after freshman Adriana Contreras hit the ball out of bounds.

Game two began with a slow start for La Verne, as the Leopards quickly found themselves at a disadvantage, falling behind, 7-1. Contreras and sophomore Kim Bell had three kills apiece to help bring La Verne ahead 11-9. However, Claremont managed to win the game 15-12.

“We knew we could have won both of those games,” said junior middle blocker Allison Moore, “so going into the third game, we were confident we could win as long as we played hard.”

That is exactly what happened. The Leopards dominated the next games, winning 15-6, 15-11, and 15-9.

“I think we are a better team overall,” Flora said. “We have more experience and better offensive attackers.”

Henry led ULV’s offensive attack with 14 kills. Contreras followed with 11.

Unfortunately, with Henry out most of the game due to an illness, the offensive attack and defensive front was not up for Wednesday’s night match against Master’s College.

ULV fell to Master’s, as the Mustangs won in a three game sweep, 15-7, 15-13 and 15-3, respectively.

“We simply had a bad night. We came in the match not intense and it showed,” said freshman defensive specialist Jessica DeHorta. “That game needs to be kept in the past. We just got to look forward to Friday.”

The Leopards are going to look forward to Pomona-Pitzer tonight at home scheduled for 7:30, as they try to improve their SCIAC record to 3-1. After Pomona, ULV plays at Cal Lutheran tomorrow at 7:30 p.m.

Damien Alarcon, Sports Editor
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