LA VERNE, Calif. - The No. 8 Cal Lutheran volleyball squad started a five-match road swing on the right foot tonight with a dominating 3-0 victory over La Verne. In a battle between two of the top teams in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) it was the visiting Regals who defeated the host Leopards 27-25, 25-20, 25-16.
"It was important for us to come out strong and beat La Verne in three sets because it is going to be a long, tough stretch being on the road for the next five," team captain Kylie McLogan said. "We came out with a lot of energy and played aggressive volleyball tonight and that will only build confidence for our team."
In the first set Cal Lutheran opened a 3-0 lead on a pair of Shannon Pearson kills and a Kennedy Peters service ace. The Regals led by four points four different times for the largest leads of the game, all but silencing the fairly full ULV bleachers. The Leos, however, clawed back into the game, sparking the crowd to generate some noise, when they erased a 16-12 CLU advantage to pull the teams even at 16-16. Allie Eason broke a 21-all tie but the teams would exchange the next points to again be tied at 25-25. McLogan finished off the set for CLU with back-to-back kills.
Though the crowd was loud to start off the second set as ULV earned the first point, it was the Regals who gained control of the momentum on the court mid-way through the game. Kills from McLogan and Eason for the 12th and 13th points, respectively, forced La Verne to take a timeout. The short break did not disrupt the Regals attack and after a McLogan kill to make things 15-11 she went back to serve, reeling off a pair of points for a 17-11 lead. Again the Leos got back, within three, at 19-16, but Pearson and Jena Chavez came up with a block after a long rally to again stretch the gap to four. A CLU timeout at 20-18 gave the Regals a chance to game plan and they executed that, pushing their lead to 23-19 before McLogan again closed the set out with the two final kills for the 25-20 win.
The third game again began close before CLU broke things open. Eason erased a 10-10 tie with a kill, sparking a 3-0 run in which she recorded a service ace while Pearson had a kill. Minutes later a Chavez kill followed by a block from Lauren Rohach and Pua Mo'okini-Oliveria, a kill from Rohach and an ace from Chavez gave Cal Lutheran a 18-12 lead. Pearson had another kill for the 21st point and Rachel Smith found the floor for an ace to put the Regals up 22-14. The game, and match, came to an end one more time with a McLogan kill following a series of attacking errors from both sides of the net.
McLogan led all players with a 17 kill, 16 dig double-double, adding a pair of aces. She took 37 swings to hit at a .351 clip. Pearson was also in double figures with 11 kills on 23 attempts for a .348 hitting percentage tonight. Additionally, she tallied four block assists and one solo stop. Chavez finished with 42 assists for CLU.
Smith and Eason both reached double digit digs with 14 and 10, respectively. Mo'okini-Oliveria and Rohach had three block assists apiece and Eason assisted on a pair.
"Overall we communicated really well tonight," McLogan went on, "We had a few hitting errors and unforced errors, but once we clean that up we will fine."
Cal Lutheran (19-4, 10-1 SCIAC) will travel to Whittier on Friday night. The Regals and Poets will take the floor at 7:30 p.m. at the Graham Athletics Center. Both live stats and live video feeds will be available.
Box Score: CLU 3, ULV 0
