Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

ORANGE, Calif. – The Whittier College Volleyball team pulled off one of the biggest wins of the season Tuesday evening as they went down to Orange, Calif. and earned a hard fought 23-25, 25-19, 25-23, 25-23 victory over Chapman University.

This marks the second straight win for the Purple & Gold as they improve to 9-5, 2-3 SCIAC, while Chapman suffers their second conference loss as they drop to 7-5, 4-2 SCIAC.

"We served tough, had some great blocks and took aggressive swings all night," explained Head Coach Chris Duarte-McDermott.  "The girls did a great job at winning the right points."

After dropping the first set 25-23, a set in which they held a lead 20-19, the Purple & Gold bounced back to take the next three sets en route to the come from behind win. 

In the second Whittier stormed out in front to a 17-10 lead and maintained their presence not giving CU any life holding off their late run to hold on for the 25-19 win that leveled the match at one. 

In the third, it was the same scenario, with Whittier again taking a big lead but this time late 19-12.  The Panthers pushed back with a 4-0 run that pulled them within two 22-20 but three attacking errors by CU would give the Poets a slight 25-23 edge putting them in front 2-1.

In the last frame, Chapman managed to gain some momentum to take a 12-10 lead but the Poets rallied to get five in a row thanks to kills from Olive Anagu (Culver City, Calif.), Casie Lowden (Glendora, Calif.), and Rebecca Slattery (Los Altos, Calif.) that put WC in front 15-12 giving them a lead they wouldn't relinquish.   

Chapman attempted to force a fifth set tying things up at 22-22 but three straight kills from Slattery would clinch the road win for the Poets.

"We need to continue to be agressive offensively and be fearless defensively," Duarte-McDermott stated. "If we can showcase our ball control and manage errors we can definitely make it happen."

Slattery led the Poets again with an impressive performance totaling 20 kills on 44 attempts to go with four block assists.  Haley Whyte (Mission Viejo, Calif.) had her breakout game of the season in the middle finishing with 12 kills on 23 attempts for a .391 hitting percentage, while totaling six blocks (1 solo/5 assist).

Torrey Mitsunaga (Culver City, Calif.) finished with a game high 36 assists to go with nine digs, and Jennifer Estrada (Pasadena, Calif.) led the backrow with 16 digs and two service aces.

Whittier returns to the court this Friday, October 2 as they host Austin College and Redlands.  The first game will be against Redlands at 1:00pm before taking on Austin College at 6:00pm.