Boxscore

Facing off against the nation's eighth-ranked team, the University of La Verne pushed Cal Lutheran to five sets before falling to the Regals 3-2 in SCIAC action Tuesday night in Thousand Oaks.

Set scores were 29-27, 25-20, 15-25, 19-25 and 9-15.

In the fifth set, the teams traded points until a kill from CLU's Shannon Pearson put the Regals up, 5-4. The Regals increased their lead to 13-9 before a Regal kill and block concluded the contest.  Cal Lutheran benefitted from a .400 hitting percentage in the fifth frame to spoil the Leopards' upset bid.

La Verne enjoyed a strong start to the contest in taking a 2-0 set lead.  

In the first set, La Verne grabbed a 23-20 advantage before the Regals earned a kill along with consecutive hitting errors to earn a tie at 23-23.  The Leos held off two CLU set points, and eventually closed out the frame on consecutive kills from Randi Taylor-Toomay to prevail 29-27.

The second stanza saw the Leos lead 15-14 but a Regal service error propelled a 10-6 La Verne to grab a 25-20 set win.  The Leopards were aided by a .293 hitting percentage. 

CLU reversed fortunes in the third set with a 25-15 win as it held La Verne to a -.212 hitting clip.  In the fourth set, the Regals were paced by Kylie McLogan's nine kills en route to a 25-19 set win to force the fifth and deciding frame.

La Verne saw its seven-match win streak come to an end as it fell to 8-2 overall and 1-1 in SCIAC play.  Cal Lutheran improved to 9-3 and 1-0, respectively.

Taylor-Toomay paced the Leopard attack with a match-high 19 kills and in the process reached the 1,000-kill milestone for her career.  Brittany Yaxley hit .308 for the match while finishing with 13 kills.  Krystal Castellanos dished out 49 assists on the evening.

The Regals had three players register double-digits in kills led by McLogan with 18 followed by Pearson (16) and Lauren Rohach (10).

CLU hit .220 on the evening while La Verne posted a .145 percentage.  The Leopards registered 8 total team blocks compared to 7 for the Regals.

La Verne continues league action on Friday as it travels east to take on Redlands (3-5, 0-3 SCIAC) in a 7:30 pm start.