WHITTIER, Calif. – Whittier opened SCIAC play with a 3-1 victory over La Verne, the 2025 NCAA Division III national runner-up, on Wednesday night. The Leopards entered the match receiving votes in the AVCA Top 25 poll.
The Poets took a tightly contested opening set, 25-23, before La Verne responded with a 25-19 victory in the second. Whittier regained control in the third set, winning 25-13, and closed out the match with a 25-15 victory in the fourth.
The Poets and Leopards traded points early in the opening set, with Whittier taking a 4-2 lead. La Verne responded with six consecutive points, but the Poets answered with a run of their own to tie the score at 8-8.
The teams continued to battle as the set progressed, eventually reaching a 20-20 tie.
Madison McPherson put Whittier ahead, 21-20, with a kill, and the Poets maintained a narrow 23-22 advantage after the teams split the next four points.
McPherson followed with a service ace to give Whittier set point at 24-22. La Verne answered with a kill, but
Lola Padilla delivered the set-winning kill off an assist from McPherson to secure a 25-23 victory.
The Leopards responded in the second set, winning 10 of the first 12 points to build an early advantage. La Verne extended its lead to 21-9 before Whittier began to rally.
A pair of Leopard errors helped spark the Poets' comeback, while kills from
Morgan Kinser, Malena Thé and McPherson cut the deficit to 21-16.
After La Verne added another point, Whittier capitalized on an additional Leopard error and a kill from Kinser to pull within four at 22-18. However, La Verne secured three of the final four points to take the set, 25-19, and even the match at 1-1.
Whittier carried the momentum from its late second-set rally into the third, taking control on its way to a 25-13 victory.
After La Verne scored the opening point, the Poets responded and steadily built their advantage. Whittier led by as many as 12 points and held the Leopards to their lowest scoring total of the match.
Thé and Padilla led a balanced offensive effort with three kills apiece, while
Mia D'Amato and
Charlotte McCully each added two. Kinser contributed three block assists to help the Poets take a 2-1 lead in the match.
The fourth set opened with another back-and-forth battle as the teams reached a 6-6 tie. La Verne capitalized on three consecutive Whittier errors to take a 9-6 advantage. The Poets pulled within one at 9-8, but the Leopards responded with three straight points to extend their lead to 12-8.
Whittier then took control, scoring 17 of the final 20 points to complete the four-set victory, 25-15.
Thé led the Poets with 13 kills, a .244 hitting percentage, 15 digs, a block assist and a service ace, recording a double-double. Kinser added 10 kills on .381 hitting and four block assists, while
Mia Rogers contributed nine kills and a .333 hitting percentage.
Hailey Church directed the offense with 21 assists, while McPherson added 15 assists, four kills, two block assists and nine digs. Reigning SCIAC Women's Volleyball Defensive Athlete of the Week
Alyssa Gonzalez anchored Whittier's back row with 23 digs.
Whittier now moves to 9-3 overall and 1-0 in conference.
The Poets will return to action on Saturday, Sept. 26, when they travel to Claremont, Calif., to face Pomona-Pitzer at 2 p.m. The Sagehens enter the matchup with a 6-7 overall record and a 0-1 mark in SCIAC play.
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