The No. 25 University of Redlands volleyball team suffered its
first loss of the season last night when it was upended by the
Tigers of Occidental College in this year's opening Southern
California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) match. The
Maroon and Gray came up short in four sets, 21-25, 25-21, 22-25,
21-25.
Despite holding early leads in every set, the Bulldogs struggled
to hold off an enthusiastic and persistent Tiger squad, who
mustered impressive blocking and effective hitting.
Redlands gained a team-leading 14 kills from senior outside
hitter Jackie Hamilton (Loma Linda, CA). She also provided 17 digs
and two block assists. Senior middle blocker Megan Phillips (Vista,
CA) racked up an impressive hitting percentage of .306 on 13 kills.
Freshman setter Alisha Cornick (Hollister, CA) supplied 31 assists
while senior libero Chelsea Arcaris (Vista, CA) came up with 31
digs from the back row.
Oxy looked to sophomore outside hitter Logan Boyer-Hayse
(Boulder, CO) to lead the Tiger offense with a match-leading 26
kills. Freshman outside hitter Stephanie Gann (Tacoma, WA) backed
her with 18 put-aways.
Redlands (9-1, 0-1 SCIAC) strives to rebound later this week as
it faces a four-match tilt through Saturday night. On Thursday, the
Bulldogs make their home debut of the season with a non-conference
showdown against Chapman University at 7 p.m. Friday's matches
include La Sierra University at 3 p.m. and Caltech at 7:30 p.m.
Finally, Redlands wraps up a full week of competition on Saturday
at 6 p.m. with a SCIAC battle at Pomona-Pitzer Colleges, which
recently defeated La Verne on the road in five sets.
