THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - In its first Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) match and home opener the No. 1 Cal Lutheran women's volleyball team swept past the Whittier Poets 3-0 (25-17, 25-16, 25-23).
The Regals came out and took an early 3-0 lead in the first set. After two errors from Cal Lutheran the Poets took a 4-3 lead, their only lead of the game. From that point on, CLU swiftly moved through the rest of the set. With service help from Jamie Smith the Regals had a 4-0 scoring run to push the lead to 20-12 and ultimately the match to a CLU win. Hope Stewart, Sarah Pappas, Michelle Lawrence and Amanda Roberts all led with three kills. Stewart also had four digs.
The second set was a much slower start than the first. The Regals swapped points with Whittier until Nicki Tetherow went back to serve and helped start a 5-0 run for CLU putting the score at 14-8. The Poets were unable to close the gap before the Regals had another scoring run served up by Tetherow reaching match point. Dianna Rohrer spiked a kill at match-point ending the set at 25-16.
Cal Lutheran was in control with a five-point lead for most of the third set. With an 18-13 advantage for CLU, the Poets decided to put everything into the last few points. The set turned from a five-point lead to a two-point finish. The Regals were able to keep their composure and hold onto the win 25-23.
Monica Lundgren and Rohrer had the highest number of kills from the Regals roster with nine and eight, respectively. Stewart and Pappas shared overall kills at six. Roberts had the same number of kills as digs with seven.Smith helped further the win with 34 assists and two service aces while Tetherow had 16 digs on the defensive end for the Regals.
Dani Gonzalez, Molly Holloway, Hannah Nua and Mikayla Dobson all played key roles in the Cal Lutheran game plan. Nua had four kills and the same number of digs as Gonzalez with two. Holloway put points on the board with her two service aces.
Cal Lutheran (9-0) will now head to Springfield, Ohio to compete in the Wittenberg Fall Classic Sept. 16-17. Cal Lutheran will face No. 22 Elmhurst and No. 8 Wittenberg, in a rematch of last season's National Championship game on Friday at 5 p.m. CLU will finish the weekend against Washington (Mo.) on Saturday at 12:00 p.m.
Box Score: CLU 3, WC 0
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