THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - The 11th-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's volleyball team earned its seventh straight win and remained the only unbeaten team in the SCIAC as it took a 3-1 road win over Cal Lutheran on Tuesday night at Gilbert Arena.
Set scores were 25-12, 25-15, 23-25, 25-13 as the Athenas improve to 12-3 overall and remain perfect in the SCIAC at 6-0. Cal Lutheran falls to 5-8 overall and 1-4 in conference play with the loss.
Brooke McKee set a new career high with 20 kills for CMS, while
Solvej Eversoll and
Shae Delany each added 10,
Dede Carranza added 32 digs and
Georgia McGovern had 36 assists.
The first set saw CMS use a 7-0 run to take a quick 8-3 lead, with Eversoll tallying three kills and McKee adding two. The Regals were still within 13-10 before a second 7-0 run allowed the Athenas to pull away, with
Brenna Bell tallying two kills and a block and McGovern adding two aces and a kill. CMS closed on a 4-0 run with
Dani Beder recording a kill and Carranza ending the set with an ace.
CMS hit .522 as a team in the second set with 14 kills in 23 attempts and only two errors. The Athenas jumped out to a 7-3 lead with a 5-0 run which featured a block and a kill from McKee on successive points. Eversoll had two kills around a solo block for the first three points in a 4-0 run to make the score 17-9, and Delany finished off a 25-15 win with a kill.
Delany opened the third set with two straight aces for a 3-0 lead, but the Regals were able to battle back and pull in front 16-13. CMS twice got the lead down to one point before Cal Lutheran opened up its largest lead at 21-17.
Hayden Lin had a service ace to close the lead to 22-21, and Delany had a solo block to tie the score at 23-23, but Cal Lutheran earned the final two points to hand the Athenas their first set loss in SCIAC play this season.
CMS responded in the fourth, though, turning an early 3-1 deficit into a 10-5 lead behind two kills and an ace from McKee.
Mia Urosevic had an ace to push the lead to 13-6, and Bell had back-to-back kills to make it an 18-9 advantage. Carranza had two aces in a 5-0 run to make the score 23-12, and McKee finished off the match with two straight kills.
McKee finished with 20 kills in 41 attempts and only three errors, hitting .415. She passed her previous career high of 17, which she set as a first-year in the NCAA Regional Finals against Trinity.
CMS will be back in action on Friday night when it hosts No. 15 La Verne in a top-20 battle at Roberts Pavilion, which will also be a rematch of the 2023 SCIAC Championship.
