WHITTIER, Calif. (Oct. 7, 2025) – A trio of offensive weapons for the Whittier College volleyball team came through in a big way on Tuesday evening, helping the Poets blow out Pomona-Pitzer Colleges and gain another important SCIAC win as the conference's second place team.
Junior
Mia D'Amato (Bakersfield, Calif. / Garces) continued her impressive run of success, earning herself a perfect day with 10 kills without committing a single error. Whether at the net stifling the Sagehens from the outside, acting as a hittier on her team's possession or acting as a situational setter for moments early in the match, the visitors had no answers for the talented junior. Meanwhile, outside hitters
Malena The (Chino Hills, Calif. / Chino Hills / Westmont College) and
Mia Rogers (Irvine, Calif. / Crean Lutheran) gave the Poets some added offensive juice at different points of the match. Rogers dominated the early going with seven of her nine kills coming in the first set, while The caught fire in the later portions of the match, finishing with nine kills herself. Together, the three Poets combined or 28 kills to just two errors, rendering the Sagehens unable to get much going on their side of the net.
The 2025 Poets had been maximizing their service play heading into Tuesday night, and the positive trends continued with the Poets recording a collective seven service aces while the Sagehens failed to record a single ace themselves. Factoring in everything, the Poets finished +10 on serve and went on to cruise in all three sets with Pomona-Pitzer unable to reach 20 points in any of the three segments. Setters
Hailey Church (La Habra, Calif. / La Habra) and
Sophia Padilla (Fontana, Calif. / St. Lucy's) combined to earn 29 assists, with Church once again impressing on serve with three aces, making it five games this year the junior has had at least three aces in a match.
By the third set, the Sagehens had emptied their bench in an attempt to find an offensive rhythm, but were unable to do so with the Poets hitting a collective .288 for the match. Other Whittier players to start in Tuesday's match included senior libero
Jessica Ferreira (Whittier, Calif. La Serna Cypress College), who played all three sets and senior outside hitter
Sofia Zazueta (La Mirada, Calif. / Orange Lutheran), who thrived in a more defensive role with a team-high 14 digs.
Head Coach
Chris Duarte-McDermott and the Poets will look to keep things rolling on Friday, Oct. 10 when they travel to perennial powerhouse Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges for a 7 p.m. game. Whittier will then take on California Lutheran University on Saturday, Oct. 11 in the annual homecoming game at 6 p.m.
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