Box Score Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – The Whittier College volleyball team saw their two match winning streak come to a close as they dropped a straight sets decision to No. 3 Cal Lutheran University 25-20, 27-25, 25-20 Tuesday evening.
Whittier now drops into 6th place in the SCIAC standings with a 13-9, 4-5 SCIAC record, while Cal Lutheran improves to 19-1, 9-0 SCIAC.
The Poets and Regals were tied up at 5-5 in the initial set before CLU used a 6-0 run to grab its first lead of the contest, which would lead to them leading by seven 17-10 before closing out the set 25-20.
Whittier came out hot in the second set though catching the Regals off guard climbing out to a 7-6 lead. The CLU would rally though and would go back and forth with WC with the teams exchanging the lead six times before the Regals would go in front 15-12. The Purple & Gold would come back however and retake the lead 19-17 and would increase their lead to 21-18 but after a ball handling error, an ace by Hannah Orlandi and a kill by Pua Mo'okini-Oliveira the set was deadlocked at 21. Whittier fought though and got to a set point 24-22 but after two attacking errors CLU had a chance to serve out the set at 25-24. Again Whittier got the ensuing point to even the game at 25 once again but back to back kills by the Regals would propel them to a two set lead.
The third set CLU would jump out in front 7-2 and led slightly 13-9 before the Poets would pull within two at 15-13. But again Cal Lutheran would pull away 21-16 before closing out the match with a 25-20 win.
Alayna Rigo (Chino Hills, Calif.) led the Poet offense with 13 kills on 40 attempts, while Casie Lowden (Glendora, Calif.) and Courtney DeLano (Riverside, Calif.) each had nine kills apiece. Adriana Moore (La Habra, Calif.) and Alyssa Acosta (Whittier, Calif.) led the defensive unit with 11 digs a piece, while Lindsey Kish (Costa Mesa, Calif.) had 10.
Whittier has a short turnaround as they host Pomona-Pitzer this Friday night October, 18 beginning at 7:30pm before hitting the road the following day, Saturday, October 19 where they will take on Occidental College at 6:00pm.
