CLAREMONT, Calif. – The University of Redlands Women's Volleyball team (8-7, 4-4 SCIAC) held a 2-1 lead against Pomona-Pitzer Tuesday night, after winning sets two and three. They also had match point in the fifth, but could not pull off the stunner on the road falling 25-22, 19-25, 16-25, 25-23, 18-16.
A fast start in the first set came thanks to Kaegan Wherry (Englewood, CA) and Emma Murphy (South Jordan, UT)) who both had kills putting UR up 5-2.
Later in the set trailing 14-13 Makenna Van Hofwegen (Buckeye, AZ) set up Avery Aminoff (Alexandria, VA) for a kill that started a 4-0 run.
The run was not enough as the Sagehens were able to win 11 of the final 16 points to take the opening set, 25-22.
Following 20 points played in the second set the teams found themselves deadlocked at 10-10. From that point forward the Bulldogs had five kills with only two errors as they took advantage of nine Sagehen miscues to win the set, 25-19.
It was more of the same in the third as Redlands went from being tied at eight to finishing on a 17-8 run to pull within a set of a match win that would tie them with Pomona-Pitzer for third place at the midway point of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) schedule.
During that period Esha Ball (Fresno, CA), Lali Makaiwi (Las Vegas, NV), Makaila Brooks (Las Vegas, NV), and Elizabeth Moyer (Surprise, AZ) all collected kills, while Lyric Waterman (Aurora, CO) and Van Hofwegen split the setting duties.
In the fourth set neither side led by more than two points until a 4-0 Bulldog run saw Waterman assist Murphy, a pair of Sagehen errors, and then an assisted block for Brooks and Murphy that gave the Maroon and Grey the largest lead of the set at three, 18-15.
Pomona-Pitzer, however, responded with six unanswered as they swung the momentum going in front by three, 21-18. The response would be enough to tie the match as the Bulldogs' late 3-0 run was not enough for the comeback.
In the winner-take-all decisive fifth set it was the Sagehens who came out firing, winning five of the first seven points.
The Bulldogs, though, would not go away easily as they put together a run of their own, a surge that gave them a 7-5 lead thanks to a pair of kills and a solo block from Ball.
With the momentum back on the Sagehens side of the net, and the Bulldogs down 12-9, Kaitlyn DeLong (Rancho Santa Margarita, CA) provided a spark finishing off two kills, while Pomona-Pitzer committed three unforced errors to give Redlands match point, 14-13.
That winning 15th point for Redlands was elusive as the Sagehens found a way to save the match point and close out the come from behind win 18-16.
In the second and third sets won by the U of R, they hit .318. But in the three sets they lost, they hit .099. Pomona-Pitzer on the other side had an even performance as their worst set bottomed out at .145 in the first and topped out at .194 in the fifth.
Wherry had a 20-10 match with 21 digs and 14 kills. Murphy and Brooks added 12 and 11 kills each. Waterman and Van Hofwegen had 27 and 20 assists, respectively.
The Bulldogs will get a full week off from competition and will return next Tuesday, October 22 when they host Whittier College at 7:00 p.m. inside Currier Gym.
