ORANGE, Calif. – The University of Redlands Women's Volleyball team returned to the court Saturday afternoon in Orange County going the distance with Chapman University falling 25-22, 21-25, 25-20, 17-25, 15-13.
The Bulldogs who are now 3-5, 0-3 SCIAC bounced back from a three-point first set loss to take the second set. But with the match tied at two sets apiece the Bulldogs wouldn't be able to pull off the stunner on the road.
After falling behind 5-1 to begin the match, Lilia Donaldson (Boulder, CO) sparked a 4-0 run that tied the first set at five. The other three points were won thanks to three assisted blocks with Donaldson apart of all three: Kiki Stradford (Mission Viejo, CA) added two and Kaegen Wherry (Englewood, CO) with one.
Chapman had set point at 24-17 but found it tough to close it out following a Paige Sugg (Federal Way, WA) kill that was then followed by four Panther errors. But the run would fall short as CU would hold on to go in front 25-22.
With her third kill of the second set, Sugg gave the Bulldogs their largest lead of the match at four, 12-8. They maintained this lead until the Panthers would tie things up at 18. From that point forward the Bulldogs won six of the final eight points to even the match at a set.
In the middle of the third the Maroon and Grey were in complete control, leading by seven, 13-6, following three consecutive Panther errors.
Chapman was able to clean up their play soon after committing only two more errors the rest of the set as they finished on an 8-1 run stealing the frame 25-20.
In a must-win fourth set the two sides were locked on seven different occasions early before a Stradford kill started a stretch where they were plus nine points winning the set 25-17. Avery Aminoff (Alexandria, VA) and Wherry each had two kills during the run, while Makaila Brooks (Las Vegas, NV) added two kills and two block assists.
In their third fifth set in eight matches Redlands found themselves in another fight as neither team was able to create separation until a late 3-1 run by Chapman proved enough to pull off the victory.
Wherry set a new career-high with 14 kills, while Sugg and Aminoff each added 11 and 10 kills, respectively. Lyric Waterman (Aurora, CO) and Ella Goettsche (Eastvale, CA) both ran the offense with 24 and 20 assists. Waterman's 24 assists tie a career high. An important returner was libero Lali Makaiwi (Las Vegas, NV) who missed the Caltech match, but returned with 21 digs to support the defense.
Redlands returns to the court next Tuesday, September 26 when they host Occidental College beginning at 7:00pm inside Currier Gym.
