CLAREMONT, Calif. - The No. 8 Cal Lutheran women's volleyball team is finally back into a familiar place: atop the SCIAC standings. CLU moved into a tie for first-place with Chapman after sweeping Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Saturday evening 3-0 (25-21, 25-18, 25-22). The win over CMS marks the third straight sweep of a SCIAC opponent for the Regals. Cal Lutheran has now won nine straight matches while dropping just one set over their last five games.
"The defense was fantastic tonight," head coach Kellee Roesel said. "The defense did things that won't necessarily show up in the stats, like our control blocks, but I think that was the difference tonight."
"CMS had a tough time getting it over our blockers and that's great to see because that's something we aren't traditionally known for."
In addition to altering shots, Cal Lutheran also had a tremendous night as a team digging out CMS attacks. Rachel Smith finished with 24 digs while Allie Eason had 13. Kylie McLogan and Jena Chavez tied with 12 and Kennedy Peters finished with 6.
Shannon Pearson led the Cal Lutheran offensive attack, finishing with 10 kills and a .588 attacking percentage. McLogan tied her teammate, recording 10 kills while Eason finished with 9.
Chavez had 30 assists.
CLU was also solid serving, finishing with four service-aces.
Coach Roesel also felt the Regals serving was just as effective even when the result wasn't an ace, "The kids were able to keep CMS out of their system by making them dive and chase for balls." She continued, "That's just another thing we did tonight that doesn't show up in the box score but really helped us win."
Roesel finished by saying, "We're progressing and that's the exciting part." She continued, "We've talked all year about needing to be playing our best volleyball at the end of October and beginning of November. And I feel like were getting there and nice to see the kids start to figure everything out."
With the win, CLU improves to 21-4 and 12-1 in the SCIAC. The loss drops CMS to 15-9 overall and 7-6 in the SCIAC.
Cal Lutheran is back in action next Tuesday, Oct. 23, as they take on Redlands. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m.
Box Score: CLU 3 CMS 0
