REDLANDS, Calif. – The University of Redlands Women's Volleyball team (12-7, 6-5 SCIAC) beat Pomona-Pitzer 3-1 (25-14, 23-25, 25-23, 25-23) on Saturday afternoon as they honored their two seniors, Paige Sugg (Federal Way, WA) and Avery Aminoff (Alexandria, VA). They are now 3-0 this season against the Sagehens with a non-conference victory and two Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) wins. It is the first time the Bulldogs posted three wins in a season against the Sagehens since 2009.
The Bulldogs dominated the opening set, 25-14, and then held a 4-0 lead to begin the second after a kill from Sugg, a service ace from Makenna Vanhofwegen (Buckeye, AZ), and a combined block from Lily Houston (Reno, NV) and Aminioff.
Pomona-Pitzer, however, scored the next five points to take a 6-5 lead. From that point forward the set was tied on four different occasions before the Sagehens went on another long run, this time a 7-2 stretch.
12 of the proceeding 19 points, though, went to the Bulldogs as they found themselves tied at 23-23 with the tying point coming off a Lily Kautai (San Mateo, CA) kill. After the great close the Sagehens would take a timeout and win the last two points to tie the match at a set.
Trailing by six, 12-6, in the third set it looked like Redlands was going to be forced to win the final two sets, but a Houston kill off a set from Hannah Hajnal (El Cerrito, CA) sparked an 11-2 run that put the Bulldogs in front by three, 17-14.
With the set tied at 20-20, Emma Murphy (South Jordan, UT) added a kill and she and Esha Ball (Fresno, CA) had an assisted block, which forced a timeout. Out of the break each team scored three points, but those scored by UR were enough to clinch the set, 25-23.
In the fourth set neither team led by more than two points until a 5-0 Bulldog run pushed them in front by five, 19-14.
At 23-19 Vanhofwegen found Kautai to set up match point. Pomona-Pitzer came out of their timeout winning four-straight, but the Bulldogs had five match points and on that fifth opportunity Hajnal found Ball in the middle for the finishing strike.
Seniors Aminoff and Sugg had nine and five kills, respectively. 'Ale'amaikalani Paiva (Honolulu, HI) was one assist short of a double-double with nine assists and 19 digs. Kautai had a double-double with 13 kills and 16 digs. Vanhofwegen had 26 assists and 11 digs too.
Redlands heads on the road for a match-up with Claremont-Mudd-Scripps this Tuesday, October 28 at 7:00 p.m.
