Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

ORANGE, Calif. - The Whittier College Volleyball team saw their winning streak snapped Tuesday night as they were swept 25-18, 25-17, 25-18 against Chapman University.   

The Purple & Gold had a seven match winning streak going into the match-up and had outscored opponents 18-1 over the past six games.  The previous time the Poets took on the Panthers, Whittier pulled out the four set win.  Whittier is 7-1 over their last eight games and move to 14-9, 7-4 SCIAC.  WC now sits 5th in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) standings with five matches left in the regular season.  

Whittier jumped out in front in the first set 13-10 but a seven-point run by the Panthers would swing the momentum giving CU a 16-13 lead, which they would hold as they would go on top 1-0.  They kept the advantage in the second set scoring the first seven points before thwarting any Poet comeback as they would take a 2-0 lead.  

The Poets went out in front early in an attempt to avoid the sweep.  During the run, Makenzie Thieme (Corona, Calif.) provided three kills and freshmen Katelyn Popoff (Hacienda Heights, Calif.) and Franki Piloto (Ontario, Calif.) tacked on another three to move the score into a tie 7-7.

Later in the frame, CU provided a 5-1 run that swung the momentum and then put together another spurt of five of six points that made the score 22-13.  Thieme added two late kills to cut the deficit to six but it wasn't enough to complete the comeback. 

Thieme finished with 13 kills and hit .310 with 11 digs.  Popoff added eight kills and Piloto with five.  Camryn Purdom (Moreno Valley, Calif.) led the front row with 17 assists and Haley Petruescu (La Mirada, Calif.) put up nine digs as the libero.                                       

Whittier has a big match-up this Friday, October 19 as they host Pomona-Pitzer beginning at 7:00pm inside of the Graham Athletic Center.