WHITTIER, Calif. (Oct. 25, 2024) – Sophomore
Mia D'Amato (Bakersfield, Calif. / Garces) of the Whittier College volleyball team served as a one-woman wrecking crew against the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens in Saturday's homecoming game, leading her team to a quick three-set drubbing of the visitors to cap off a stellar day of events.
Collectively, Whittier played one of its best, most controlled matches of the season, with every move made both defensive and offensively completely deliberately with the intention of making life hard on the visiting Sagehens. D'Amato played into this better than any player on the floor. The sophomore, on 20 attempts picked up 14 kills without committing a single error, giving her a truly elite .490 hitting percentage on the week. Last season's SCIAC Newcomer of the Year also cleaned up at the net with three assisted blocks and one solo effort.
Whittier seldom found danger in Saturday's match -- this after hitting a small setback at No. 13 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges on Friday night. Even in that game, D'Amato managed to come away with it without committing a single error. Nevertheless, the Poets showed they could reset against another great team in Pomona-Pitzer. The only real bit of danger came in the first set when the Sagehens, trailing by seven late, reeled off four consecutive points to prompt a Whittier timeout. However, the Purple & Gold responded the way they needed to, winning three of the final four points with the last two coming on the serve of senior libero
Nadine Oronoz (Whittier, Calif. / Southland Christian / Rio Hondo College).
The Poets then proceeded to win the second and third sets by huge margins of 11 and 13 points respectively, and most importantly, showed they could finish individual sets on significant high notes. Whittier won eight of the final 10 points in the second, and got a big boost off the serve of junior defensive specialist
Jessica Ferreira (Whittier, Calif. / La Serna Cypress College). Ferreira logged the start for the Poets on Saturday in a non-libero role, and made the most of her opportunity, namely in serving situations, but also defensively. She led all Poets with 10 digs, while Oronoz, the starting libero, came up with nine. The third set ended on a seven-point run on the serve of junior setter
Sophia Padilla (Fontana, Calif. / St. Lucy's). D'Amato added two more kills to her total here, as did senior
Riley DeGroot (Ontario, Calif. / Ontario Christian / Mt. San Antonio College), who finished second on the team with eight while assisting on four blocks. The Poets' performance at the net, collectively, proved to be a huge difference against one of the SCIAC's better net teams. They outblocked the Sagehens 9-4.
Head Coach
Chris Duarte-McDermott and the Poets look to be in a good frame of mind for their stretch run. This week, they will have Friday and Saturday games against eighth and ninth-place teams in Caltech and Occidental College, with Friday's Caltech game serving as the team's Senior Night game.
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