WHITTIER, Calif. (Sept. 7, 2024) – The Whittier College volleyball team entered the 2024 season on a mission to show its incredible late-season run to the SCIAC Postseason Tournament in 2023 was no fluke, and that they are here to stay as a premier program in one of the most momentum-laden conferences in Division III.
Seven games into the campaign, they have done just that, and following a 4-0 stint at the 2024 Whittier College Volleyball Invitational, the Poets can now claim their best start to a season in nine years. Whittier also started 6-1 back in 2015, Head Coach
Chris Duarte-McDermott's third season at the helm. However, whereas the Poets started that season with wins over the likes of local NAIA schools such as Providence Christian College, Life Pacific University and La Sierra University, this year the Poets have stuffed their record with wins over exclusively NCAA competition.
Friday Game 1: Whittier 3, Puget Sound 1
After the University of Puget Sound looked the part against Chapman University earlier in the morning, the Poets showed they could handle the Loggers with a balanced attack led by senior middle blocker
Analise Kusleika (Upland, Calif. / Claremont). The older Kusleika sister has been on fire to start her senior season, and Friday was no exception, posting 11 kills against just two errors. As one of three Poets with double-digit kills, she would be joined by outside hitters
Riley DeGroot (Ontario, Calif. / Ontario Christian / Mt. San Antonio College) and
Sofia Zazueta (La Mirada, Calif. / Orange Lutheran). Though the first two stanzas were closely contested, the Poets never truly found themselves in any peril. Even when the Loggers turned back two set points in the second, Whittier responded with back-to-back kills from Zazueta to seal the deal and stake the host team to a 2-0 lead.
Puget Sound struck back in the third, however, and opened to a 12-9 lead that required a clear answer out of the Poets if they were to avoid going to a deciding set in the first match of the tournament. They were able to do just that, and proceeded to embark on a 9-4 run to firmly regain control of the set and the match. Back-to-back service aces from DeGroot aided the Poets over this stretch, but when the Loggers caught their second wind looking to push for a deciding set, the attacking combination of the Kusleika sisters and DeGroot successfully slammed the door shut, giving Whittier a four-set win. Proficiency on the serve proved to be a friend to the Poets, as they out-aced Puget Sound at a 3:1 clip. DeGroot led all Whittier players with three, and came up huge as a steadying defensive presence with 20 digs to cap off a monster opening match.
Friday Game 2: Whittier 3, Edgewood 0
Whittier had a better go of it with Edgewood College, picking up a straight-set victory while providing some extra recovery time before the two-match Saturday. Kusleika once again showed she can be a force in the middle, leading all Poets with nine kills in a quick three-setter where the Eagles only surpassed 20 points once. In the odd sets, the Poets hovered around or surpassed a .300 hitting percentage, so everything clicked for the home team in the late game. Setters
Morgan Lin (Glendora, Calif. / Glendora) and
Sophia Padilla (Fontana, Calif. / St. Lucy's) played into the Poets' efficiency, combining for 30 assists in just three sets of work.
Senior middle blocker
Xenia Villagomez (Corona, Calif. / Santiago) also got involved with eight kills of her own, matching DeGroot's total for the match while senior libero
Nadine Oronoz (Whittier, Calif. / Southland Christian / Rio Hondo College) flashed her serve, the most dominant in the SCIAC last year, to the tune of three service aces. Ultimately the Poets were simply too big and too deep for the Eagles to handle, cruising to what, at the time, was their fourth-consecutive victory.
Saturday Game 1: Whittier 3, UC Santa Cruz 2
Saturday included 10 sets of action to keep the Poets busy, but the Purple & Gold nevertheless persevered in both match to run their winning streak to six games. The first of those wins came against the University of California, Santa Cruz, a team that is always a tough out for Whittier in virtually every sport. The Banana Slugs brought it in the first set, taking a 1-0 advantage, but facing a similar late-set scenario in the second set, Whittier pulled through by winning four of the last six points to give them a new lease on life. All four points ended with kills from either DeGroot or sophomore opposite side hitter
Mia D'Amato, last year's SCIAC Newcomer of the Year.
The third set saw the Slugs win another war of attrition-style frame before the Poets discovered their superior form in the fourth. Over the final two sets, Whittier outscored UC Santa Cruz 40-24, and did so with incredible efficiency. Duarte-McDermott shuffled the Poets' lineup around for the first three sets, but found a combination he like in the fourth that really took off and took his team over the finish line. Four players had at least double-digit kills playing all five sets: DeGroot, Zazueta, D'Amato, and Villagomez. Additionally, Ventura College transfer
Kylie Ibbotson (Moorpark, Calif. / Moorpark / Ventura College) gave the Poets a different look on the outside, and found her way to a nine-kill performance playing parts of four sets. Additionally, the Poets were able to match the Slugs' total of 11 service aces with Oronoz leading the way with four.
Saturday Game 2: Whittier 3, Austin College 2
A dramatic weekend of volleyball saved perhaps the best game of the tournament for last, as the Poets pulled another five-set rabbit out of the hat, this time against Austin College. With 12 sets of volleyball already under their belt, the Poets had to lean on their depth as much as any match this season with and eye-catching 17 different players seeing the court.
This time, Zazueta took her turn as the offensive star, hitting .273 with 14 kills to just two errors. Oronoz, meanwhile, notched another three-ace match to go with a team-best 24 digs. Her 57 digs on the weekend ranked only behind teammate DeGroot for the team lead. The match opened on a strange note, with Austin securing the first six points, however, Whittier chipped away at the lead before surging ahead on a five-point run on DeGroot's serve. Another four-point run soon followed on D'Amato's serve, but the Kangaroos ultimately caught some late frame momentum to take a 1-0 lead. A similar second set followed, and looking at a 2-0 deficit, it appeared as though the Poets had finally begun to run out of gas at the tail end of a busy weekend of action.
However, that was not to be, as the Poets went on to win the third and fourth sets in spite of it all. With both teams exhausted, the third set came down to the Poets simply outlasting the Kangaroos after another five-point run on DeGroot's serve. The fourth set, however, saw the Purple & Gold put forth the most efficient attacking performance by either team, hitting a collective .244 with just four attacking errors. The war of attrition carried over into the fifth set. The Poets opened on a 7-3 lead, playing with the wind at their backs after coming up victorious in each of the previous stanzas. However, Austin narrowed the lead, prompting Duarte-McDermott to call a timeout at 7-5. Austin then rumbled to an 8-7 advantage before yet another five-point serving run from DeGroot tipped the scales back in Whittier's favor. Kills from Zazueta on the final two points, as well as a rare kill from Oronoz back near the baseline, ultimately helped the Poets finish the Kangaroos and make good on a historic end to the weekend.
Duarte-McDermott and the Poets, who could soon begin to approach the NCAA Division III rankings as they did last year, will now head to Massachusetts for the Boston Invitational this weekend for games against MIT, Tufts University, and Calvin College. The Poets have never started a season with seven wins in eight games.
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