The University of Redlands volleyball team took to the road on Saturday night to face the University of La Verne Leopards in a Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) showdown. The team battled but came up short and fell to La Verne in straight sets, 19-25, 11-25, and 21-25.

Redlands led early in the first set with a service ace from senior defensive specialist Alex Michel (Loma Linda, CA) and a pair of kills from sophomore outside hitter Kaylee Burdick (Sun Valley, CA) and freshman outside hitter Christina Casey (Sherwood, OR). Although the Bulldogs kept it close throughout the set, the Leopards pulled away with a 25-19 win.

Coming off an error-riddled second set that left the Bulldogs with a final score of 11-25, they had some catching up to do in the third set. Refusing to go away, the Bulldogs showed some grit and fought back early, thanks in part to tough serving by Burdick and a balanced attack along the net.  However, a few short runs by the home team forced Redlands back into a deficit it could not overcome, leading to a 21-25 loss. 

The Bulldogs put together their best offensive showing of the night in the third set by amassing 14 kills, with freshman middle hitter Sofia Olsson (Cupertino, CA) leading the pack with four of her nine.

Overall, freshman middle hitter Megan Houston (Normandy Park, WA) fired off an efficient hitting percentage of .429.  Senior setter Ellie McLeod (Redlands, CA) continued to manage the ball-distribution duties with 24 assists.  Defensively, junior libero Abigail Hickman (Phoenix, AZ) led the Bulldogs with 12 digs.

The Bulldogs (8-2, 1-1 SCIAC) look to rebound when they play host to top-ranked Cal Lutheran University in a SCIAC match in Currier Gym on Tuesday, September 20. Match time is at 7 p.m.