THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - The effort was there, but the execution was lacking.
The top-seeded Cal Lutheran women's volleyball team was swept by second-seeded Claremont-Mudd Scripps 25-21, 25-20, 25-19 in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament championship Saturday night at Gilbert Arena.
By ending CLU's three-year reign as tournament champions, CMS (26-5) earned the conference's automatic berth into the NCAA Division III playoffs.
CLU (25-5) will have to wait until Monday to find out if it receives an at-large selection to the NCAA tournament.
"They kind of beat us at our own game," CLU head coach Kellee Roesel said. "CMS was really aggressive and had great ball control. They blocked every ball and picked up every ball. I give them all the credit. Our mainstay kids that played solid all year had a rough night."
CLU was not playing at full strength. Junior Michelle Lawrence, CLU's kill leader, has been sick with pneumonia and didn't play in the semifinals.
Lawrence first entered the championship match late in the opening set and played on and off throughout the final two sets. She finished with seven kills and three digs.
"It was obvious her timing was off. She netted a few times and was just out of whack," Roesel said. "It was a difficult situation for me to ask her to go in and do that, but we had to have her blocking. That is all there was to it."
Eighth-ranked CLU and No. 9 CMS boasted nearly equal records, nearly equal rankings and split their regular-season meetings to share the SCIAC title.
CMS played nearly flawless to hand CLU its first home loss of the season.
The Regals jumped out to an 8-4 lead in the first set, but CMS rallied to move in front for good at 18-17. The Athenas clinched the set on a roll shot by Shelbi Stein.
The second set was tight throughout. CMS took its first lead at 11-10 and capitalized on a string of CLU errors to pull away late. The Regals finished the set hitting only .065.
CLU opened the third set with more errors and CMS took advantage to grab a 5-1 lead. The Regals mounted a comeback to tie the set 11-11 before CMS gradually took control.
The Athenas clinched the title with an ace by Sarah Brumi on match point.
"I think there were things we did well, but we also did things that gave them free points that we should not have given them," CLU junior libero Nicki Tetherow said. "They played really well. They were digging balls and were swinging away."
Tetherow finished with 16 digs and Jamie Smith had 28 assists. Allie Eason and Monica Lundgren shared the lead in kills for CLU with eight apiece. The Regals finished the match hitting only .111.
With their playoff fate in the hands of the NCAA committee, the Regals can only wait to see if their NCAA appearance streak will extend to eight. A selection show is scheduled for 8:00 a.m. PST Monday, Nov. 9.
"It's hard to keep your head up after a loss, especially at home. But we believe there is still two weeks left in the season for us," Tetherow said. "That is how we see it. It's not the end for us and this will only make us work harder in practice to make sure this doesn't happen again."
Box Score: CMS 3, CLU 0
VC Star Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vcstar
VC Star Instagram: http://instagram.com/vc_star
CLU Twitter: https://twitter.com/clusports
CLU Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/clusports
CLU Instagram: http://instagram.com/clusports#
