Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

LA VERNE, Calif. –The Whittier College Volleyball team wrapped up their non-conference schedule Friday as they swept the competition at the La Verne Invite beating Muhlenberg and Lynchburg.

With the wins, the Poets move to 7-12, 3-5 SCIAC and finish non-conference play 4-7.

Game 1 (Muhlenberg – 25-22, 25-13, 25-17) 

Whittier got off to a strong start in their first match-up.  They trailed early to the Mules at 15-13 and then saw them take a 21-19 advantage but they managed to rally to win six of the next seven points with kills from Olive Anagu (Culver City, Calif.) and Camryn Purdom (Moreno Valley, Calif.) that put WC in front.

The Purple & Gold took over from there hitting .304 and then .317 over the final two frames to route the Mules.  Rebecca Slattery (Los Altos, Calif.) led the Poets with 15 kills on 29 attempts hitting .448.  Anagu registered 11 with eight digs and Kyriaki Tsigkounis (Rialto, Calif.) and Casie Lowden (Glendora, Calif.) had five apiece. 

Alexis Mills (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.) totaled four blocks, Katie Engle (Whittier, Calif.) had 21 digs and Purdom led in the assists category with 16. 

Game 2 (Lynchburg – 25-20, 25-23, 25-12)

Whittier carried the momentum into their second match-up and controlled from start to finish.  The first set included two separate 4-0 runs that gave the Purple & Gold the 25-20 win and they continued to roll in the second coming from behind to edge Lynchburg by two.

The final set was lopsided with Lynchburg not being able to stop the Poets hitting .524 in the final stanza, which included 13 kills.  Whittier put together 10 unanswered that gave them a cushion and they rolled from there completing the clean sweep.

Slattery finished with 13 kills, hitting .235 with four block assists.  Lowden totaled seven kills and nine digs.  Tsigkounis registered seven kills and hit .545 and Anagu finished with six kills hitting .312.

Purdom again led in assists with 17, while Jasmine Tong (Fullerton, Calif.) finished with 14.  Engle led the backrow with 19.       

Whittier returns to conference play on Tuesday, October 11 when they take on La Verne on the road with game time set for 7:00pm.