A balanced offensive attack helped provide the University of La Verne with a thrilling 3-2 win over second-place Occidental College in SCIAC volleyball action Tuesday night at Frantz Athletic Court.

La Verne handed Occidental only its second loss in conference play in winning its third consecutive match and fourth in its last five contests.

In the decisive fifth set, the Leopards raced out to a 5-2 advantage, but the Tigers responded with a 4-0 run to grab a 6-5 lead.  After a kill by Anna Calmer stopped the Oxy run and knot the set at 6-6, the two teams would split the next eight points resulting in a 10-10 deadlock.

The Leopards pulled away from Oxy with three straight points on a Tiger attack error followed by consecutive kills from Kendall Kraiss and Randi Taylor-Toomay to seize a 13-10 advantage.  Up 14-11, the Leos closed the match with a kill from Kraiss, giving La Verne the five-set triumph.

The win was La Verne's first in a five-set match since defeating Pacific Lutheran 3-2 back on Sept. 11. 

In the opening set, the Leopards erased a 22-20 deficit and held set points at 24-23, 25-24 and 26-25.  The Tigers would hold on each occassion, eventually finishing with a 3-0 run on a Leopard block error, a service ace and a Leopard attack error to prevail 28-26.

La Verne claimed the second stanza with a late surge to prevail 25-22.  The two teams were knotted at 19-19 when the Leos went ahead for good as they proceeded to take the next three points to grab a 22-19 advantage.  Oxy would pull to within one at 23-22, but consecutive kills from Anna Calmer and Toomay closed the set to pull the Leopards even at a set apiece.

The Leos controlled the third frame, opening an early lead of 12-5.  Back-to-back kills from Danielle Maxwell and Tiffany Johnstone gave La Verne its biggest lead at 22-12 en route to earning a 25-17 set win to go up 2-1 on the Tigers.  La Verne hit .289 in the set, connecting on 17 kills.

Occidental battled back in the fourth set, grabbing a 13-10 lead early only to watch the Leos reel off four consecutive points to hold a 14-13 edge.  The Tigers reclaimed momentum by winning eight of the next 11 points to lead 21-17.  The Leos pulled within two at 24-22 but suffered an attack error on the next point to give Oxy the set at 25-22 to force the fifth set.

La Verne hit .257 in the final frame compared to a .143 percentage for Oxy.

Calmer led La Verne in kills with 17 and was one of four Leos to reach double figures in kills for the evening.  Maxwell totaled 16 kills followed by Catie Logan (14) and Toomay (11).  Kendall Kraiss totaled a match-high 50 assists on the night while adding 9 kills in the win.  Freshman libero Morgan Donohue collected a match-high 40 digs.

Oxy (23-5, 8-2 sciac) was paced by Stephanie Gann with a match-high 20 kills while teammate Logan Boyer-Hayse added 16 kills.  Gann (72) and Boyse-Hayse (76) combined for 148 total attacks on the night.

La Verne (15-10, 5-6 SCIAC) hosts Caltech Friday evening on Senior Night.  Start time is 7:30 pm.