WHITTIER, Calif. - The Cal Lutheran women's volleyball team made quick work of Whittier Friday night, limiting the Poets to a .038 hitting percentage en route to sweeping the host team 3-0 (25-19, 27-25, 25-19). The sweep comes just two weeks after Whittier had taken the Regals to five sets on Oct. 5. The win also keeps the Regals a half game back of SCIAC-leading Chapman with a little over a week left in the regular season.
Cal Lutheran fell behind early in the first set before taking their first lead at 16-15 thanks to a Shannon Pearson kill. CLU would benefit from five Whittier attacking errors down the stretch to take the first set 25-19.
The Regals found themselves behind again in the second set, trailing by as much as five at one point. But Pearson and Kylie McLogan would lead the comeback, each notching three kills to pull the Regals even at 16-16.
Alyssa Sialaris would later record two kills to get Whittier back out in front at 23-21 and force Coach Kellee Roesel to call a timeout.
CLU was able to regroup after the break and level the score at 23-23 thanks to kills from Jena Chavez and McLogan. The tandem would then team up again after a Whittier point, with McLogan finishing a kill to tie the match and Chavez coming through with a clutch service-ace to get it to game-point. Another attacking-error would plague the Poets as a Sialaris error provided the winning point for CLU as they took the set 27-25.
Momentum was clearly on Cal Lutheran's side in the third set as they raced out to an 18-11 lead. Whittier would get as close as five with CLU leading 19-14 but kills from Hannah Orlandi and the Erin "the Closer" Hedrick fittingly ended the match, 25-19.
Allie Eason led the Regals with 13 kills and 10 digs while Pearson finished with 9 kills.
Chavez finished with 27 assists.
Defensively, Cal Lutheran was led by Lauren Rohach, who had six block assists. Rachel Smith had 14 digs while McLogan had 12.
With the win, Cal Lutheran improves to 20-4 overall and 11-1 in the SCIAC. Friday night's win marks their eighth-straight victory. Whittier falls to 8-15 overall and 3-9 in the SCIAC.
CLU returns to action tomorrow, Oct. 20, when they travel to Claremont to take on Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. Tip-off is set for 6:00 p.m.
Box Score: CLU 3 Whittier 0
