WHITTIER, Calif. (October 1, 2022)- The Whittier College Poets dominated Occidental Tigers at home Saturday night, improving their conference record to 3-2.
The Poets came out ready to fight in the first set. After going back and forth with the Tigers at the beginning of the set, senior captain Della Trimble took the Poets on a 10-unanswered point rally, including three service aces. The Poets jumped out to a 20-8 lead and eventually won 25-12.
As the second opened, the Poets had the house rocking after a strong first set performance. Unfortunately, Occidental would not go down without a fight. The Whittier student-athletes would struggle to communicate with one another on the court and found themselves trailing for most of the set. The final score saw the set go to the Tigers, 25-21.
With the score at 6-4 in favor of the Poets to start the third set, sophomore Morgan Lin took the ball to begin her turn to serve. The Tigers would not get the ball back until they cut their deficit to 14-5. This was the second dominant streak the Poets had in the match. Freshman Cheyanne Ybañez would lead the Poets to a 25-7 victory in the set, recording six kills in just this set alone.
Coming off its best set of the season, Whittier was ready to end the match as the fourth started. Sofia Zazueta took the ball with a 4-2 lead and took the Poets on a five-point run to make the score 9-2. The momentum of the last set carried over to this one, and the Whittier women were clicking on all cylinders. Their movement on the court and their communication were all in great flow. With some key defensive digs from libero Briana Rodriguez, the Tigers were never able to find their footing. Whittier took the set by a score of 25-14.
With the win in the fourth set, the Poets secured the match victory, 3-1. With this victory, they improved to 3-2 in conference play.
Ybañez was the star of the match with 13 kills and eight digs. Senior Hana Abdullah also had a great game, finishing with 10 kills and a .833 kill percentage. Zazueta led the team in digs with 12, while Rodriguez contributed nine. Setters Lin and Trimble each contributed more than 15 assists.
"This was a great match for us," Xenia Villagomez stated. "There were some simple mistakes we made in the second, but I am proud of the way we fought back and won the third and fourth sets. Overall, I think the three sets we won tonight were three of the best we've played all year."
Whittier will travel to La Verne next Tuesday, October 4th to take on the Leopards in another conference match.
Photo: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
