Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

CLAREMONT, Calif. – On a rare Thursday night contest, the Whittier College Volleyball team saw their winning streak extended to six games as they rolled to the 26-24, 25-21, 25-18 sweep of the Sagehens of Pomona-Pitzer keeping their sites on a Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Post Season berth.

With the win, Whittier (13-5, 5-3 SCIAC) has now picked up their fourth straight sweep and have now outscored their opponents 18-2 in sets over their past six contests.

The first set remained tight despite the Purple & Gold holding PP to just .098 hitting.  Whittier jumped in front 9-4 early but saw the Sagehens erupt for nine straight that gave them their first lead 13-9.  The deficit moved to five at 17-12 but the Poets rallied however winning 9 of the next 12 points capped off with a kill from Olive Anagu (Culver City, Calif.) that gave them back the advantage 21-20. 

PP would string together three straight soon after that put them up two 23-21 but again Whittier didn't go away winning five of the next six points, which included huge back to back kills from freshman Kyriaki Tsigkounis (Rialto, Calif.) that tied things up at 24.  Then two attacking errors and a kill from Casie Lowden (Glendora, Calif.) would secure the first set for the Purple & Gold.

In the second, Whittier again controlled the tempo early going in front 4-1 and would hold a slight advantage throughout until PP fought back to tie things up at 17-17.  But in the end Whittier stood strong outscoring PP 8-4 that secured the set putting the Sagehens in a hole 2-0. 

The third set was full of runs.  Whittier had the first 6-0 two kills coming from Rebecca Slattery (Los Altos, Calif.) and Lowden.  PP would then put together their own of five straight that pulled them within one but that's as close as they would get as the Poets would use a run of four straight that extended the lead to 17-12 before they wrapped things up winning eight of the final 12 points en route to yet another clean sweep.

Slattery led all scorers with 12 kills.  Lowden and Anagu each had seven, Torrey Mitsunaga (Culver City, Calif.) and Jasmine Tong (Fullerton, Calif.) split setting duties with 19 and 12, each respectively, Lowden had 16 digs, while Jennifer Estrada (Pasadena, Calif.) collected 14 and Haley Whyte (Mission Viejo, Calif.) totaled a match high five blocks.    

Whittier returns has a short turn-around as they return to action today, Friday, October 9 at the Leopard Invitational as they take on UC Santa Cruz at 3:00pm before taking on the No. 1 team in the country Juniata at 6:00pm. 

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