Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The Whittier College women's volleyball team who has won four straight continues to impress as they rolled to a 19-25, 26-24, 25-21, 25-19 upset victory over the Tigers of Occidental College.

The Tigers who are coming off of an upset themselves over No. 15 Cal Lutheran Friday evening were looking for their second win over Whittier on the season.  The previous time these two teams met Occidental won convincingly 3-1.  But this time around, the Poets were fired up coming off of their upset win over the Sagehens of Pomona-Pitzer Friday evening.

The Purple and Gold now run their record to 11-6 overall, while moving to 6-4 in SCIAC play, while Occidental drops to 17-8, and 8-3 in SCIAC.    

Junior transfer Alyssa Sialaris paced the Poets for her best game of the season as she came unglued for a double-double with a game and season high 23 kills on 59 attempts for a .305 hitting percentage, and 10 digs.

Sialaris still leads the SCIAC in kills with 357 and is still the only SCIAC player who remains in the top 25 nationally in kills per set.     

"Alyssa stepped up big tonight and wanted the ball, she carried the team and it showed.  The girls looked to her for motivation and energy and they got it.  These girls have been playing so hard these past few weeks and they are working together as a team and they are ready to make that final push into the SCIAC Tournament" Coach Oliver explained.

Behind Sialaris, Whittier only gathered another 27 kills, with nine coming from Alayna Rigo, eight from Lauren Whiteman, four from Alessandra Rios and three from Malia Valdivieso and Katie Heard.

But the story of the night was the defense of the Poets as they scrapped and dove for every ball knowing that every point was costly.  Five Poets had double digit digs including Lindsey Kish who finished with 12, Sialaris (10), Rios (13), Justine Martinez (20), and Alyssa Acosta (17).

Rios on the evening finished with another double-double as well as she finished with 41 assists to go with 10 digs.

Whittier looks to come back in their final week of regular season games as they take on Claremont-M-S on Tuesday, October 25 beginning at 7:30pm.