Justyn Henriquez
Staff Writer
More than 100 fans filled the Athletics Pavilion on Saturday to watch the La Verne volleyball team compete against Southwestern and Westminster in the Pacific Coast Classic tournament.
The tournament opened Friday against Lasell with a last-minute relocation from the Athletics Pavilion to Harvey Mudd College’s Linde Activities Center due to a campus-wide power outage at ULV.
The change forced the Leopards to adjust and adapt to the unexpected environment.
“Our coach was like, ‘Hey, this is what we have to do,” Tova Craig, junior defensive specialist, said. “We have to adapt. And we can’t complain about it or anything. This is what it is.’”
Head coach Randi Taylor-Toomay described the season thus far as being rather unorthodox, and instead of allowing it to be an excuse, she expressed gratitude to have a platform for play.
“Our theme and kind of what we have talked about as a program is, ‘Choose your hard,’” Taylor-Toomay said. “There are so many hard things you are going to go through; is this really that hard, you know?”
The Leopards swept Lasell, 3-0, and returned home Saturday to close out the tournament.
The crowd grew loud as ULV built momentum in the early game against Southwestern. Players brought intensity and celebrated points from the court as the crowd responded from the bleachers. Both benches remained on their feet, showing support to the core six players on the court with consistent energy and encouragement in the battle over momentum.
The Leopards began the first match against Southwestern slowly, then found their rhythm and eventually swept the Pirates, 3-0.
“We started off a little slow,” Alanna Jones, senior opposite, said. “Energy wasn’t there… we’re known for being energetic, but once we got a couple points and got back to our La Verne standard, then it was up from there.”
Jones concluded this match with seven kills, several coming from plays the team has been practicing, allowing her to contribute offensively as La Verne’s momentum built.
“In practice, we’ve been practicing some new plays, and we got to show them today a little bit,” Jones said. “For me, it was working a lot. I got a lot of kills off my play behind, and the setter-hitter connection.”
Isabella Emanuele, junior opposite and setter, helped the team out of their slow start as they worked through early-season nerves.
“I think to start, everyone just gets kind of nervous; it’s the beginning of the season,” Emanuele said. “I think once we got the hang of it, everything was good.”
The Leopards closed out game two with 35 kills, 34 assists and 14 blocks. Zacky Coaston, senior middle blocker, finished the game with 11 blocks while Lauren Gott, senior outside hitter, recorded a team-high 10 kills.
Defensively, the Leopards’ ability to keep plays alive helped relieve pressure off of the offense.
“I think our defense has been really good and scrappy,” Craig said. “It’s nice because we can take the load off of our hitters a little bit more.”
La Verne finished the Pacific Coast Classic with a record of 2-1 after losing to Westminster, 3-1, in their final match.
The Leopards will play again at the Athletics Pavilion at 3 p.m. Friday to open the Whittier/La Verne Invitational Tournament against UC Santa Cruz. They will then face Puget Sound at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Pacific Lutheran at 12:30 p.m. Saturday and Batten at 5:30 p.m. Saturday.
Justyn Henriquez can be reached at justyn.henriquez@laverne.edu.
Justyn Henriquez is a junior journalism major with a concentration in broadcast journalism, and a staff writer for the Campus Times.
