AZUSA, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps volleyball team became the first team to take undefeated Azusa Pacific to five sets, but the Cougars were able to earn a 15-12 win in the fifth to defeat the Athenas 3-2 on Tuesday evening.
CMS sees its record move to 6-8 on the year, while Azusa Pacific improves to 18-0. The Cougars are in transition to Division III, but are currently not eligible for SCIAC competition and the match does not factor into the league standings.
The Athenas dropped the first set 25-22 and then were down 8-0 in the second set before coming back to win 26-24.
Lauren Staples had a pair of kills to snap ties at 23-23 and 24-24 to give the Athenas two set points, before an APU error leveled the match at a set apiece.
After the Cougars went ahead 2-1 with a 25-22 win in the third set, CMS used an 8-0 run to go ahead 15-7 in the fourth, keyed by two straight aces from
Shae Delany. The Cougars clawed back to within 19-16, but
Solvej Eversoll had two kills in a 5-0 run to give the Athenas a 24-16 lead. Delany then had the set-winning kill for a 25-17 victory to force the match to a fifth.
APU led 7-5 in the fifth before CMS went on a 5-0 run. Staples had a kill, Delany had two straight and Eversoll had two straight blocks, the second with Staples, to put CMS ahead 10-7. After two straight APU points made it 10-9, Staples had a kill to restore a two-point lead, but APU used a 5-0 run to go ahead 14-11.
Phoebe Shorney had a kill to erase the first match point, but the Cougars responded with a kill to take the set 15-12 and the match 3-2.
Delany led CMS with 15 kills, while Staples had 14, Shorney had 12,
Quincy Rodin had 11 and Eversoll had nine.
Hayden Lin (34) and
Samantha Riter (21) had 55 assists, while
Skye Dunn had 25 digs and Delany added 14.
CMS will be back in action on Saturday when it hosts a Beaver Doubleheader at Roberts Pavilion, facing Babson at 11 a.m. in a rematch of last year's opening round NCAA Tournament contest won by the Beavers, and then facing Caltech in a SCIAC match-up at 4 p.m.
