Volleyball Week in Review
The Pomona Pitzer Women’s Volleyball Team started off conference with a couple of hard fought five set matches. SCIAC matches began for the Sagehens this past Saturday as they played host to the visiting Occidental Tigers. In a match that saw several momentum swings, the Hens lost a close one in set one 24-26 as Dana Kittrelle led the way with 4 kills while 3 others had 3 kills a piece. Set 2 saw a dramatic change as the Hens rallied back to dominate this set winning 25-13 as Sarah Amos crushed 5 kills out of 8 attempts with no errors. The match seesawed back and forth as the Tigers pulled out another close one, 24-26 in the third set. With the Tigers leading the match 2 sets to 1, the fourth set proved to be a nail biter, going OT with Pomona Pitzer eeking out a 32-30 victory behind Sarah’s 9 kills and Dana’s 5. The final set provided no less drama when the Hens and Tigers were pushed to the limit with the Tigers coming out on top 16-14.
The Sagehens statistically dominated Oxy 70-57 in kills, 105-73 in digs however were not able to pull ou t the victory. Sarah Amos led the way with 22 kills and 27 digs. Heidi Leonard paced the backrow tallying a personal career high 40 digs while teammate Lauren Kim came up with 16 digs of her own. Kenzie Aries dished out 62 assists with 3 service aces and 9 digs while Dana Kittrelle had 13 kills with a .306 hitting percentage (13-2-36) and 4 blocks. Jordan Hammond added 14 kills and 3 blocks and Eleanor Hughes had 11 kills.
After this frustrating loss, the Sagehens had to refocus and prepare for the cross campus rivalry match at CMS on Tuesday. We entered Ducey Gym knowing we had our work cut out for us as we were facing a very talented Athena team. That was proven with our first set loss at 15-25. The Athenas came out on fire and held us to only 6 kills to their 16 in that set. But the Hens decided to start playing and came out to take set 2 25-21 behind Eleanor Hughes’ 5 kills. The third set saw many lead changes and momentum swings, but again the Sagehens were able to battle and take that set 29-27. The fourth set saw CMS coming back and winning 25-22 despite a 6 kill effort by Sarah Amos. Fortunately for the Hens, we were able to maintain our focus and have a flawless 5th set, going for 7 kills on 20 attempts with no errors for a .350 hitting percentage allowing us to take advantage of a few Athena errors and win in five 15-11.
Again, the Hens were paced by senior Sarah
Amos with 15 kills and 18 digs while sophomore Heidi Leonard
tallied 224 digs. Christine Chan also played
well defensively garnering a personal season best 19 digs and
Lauren Kim added 12 digs of her own. Eleanor
Hughes had 13 kills and a team high .281 hitting percentage to go
with her 11 digs, while Jordan Hammond added 10 kills and 2
blocks. Kenzie Aries ran a smooth offense
dishing out 38 assists and tallying 13 digs. The
Sagehens have not defeated CMS on their home court since 2001!
The
schedule doesn’t get any easier as the Hens head to Chapman
on Friday then to Redlands for their 3rd conference
match.
