No. 18 Volleyball sweeps Redlands on Senior Night

No. 18 Volleyball sweeps Redlands on Senior Night

LA VERNE, Calif. — The No. 18 University of La Verne volleyball team cruised to a 25-16, 25-23, 25-16 win over Redlands on Saturday evening at Sport Science and Athletic Pavilion.

La Verne improves to 19-4 overall and 13-2 in SCIAC play. Redlands falls to 6-17 and 2-11.

Before the match, the Leopards celebrated the careers of their five seniors: Ashlyn Cross, Mele Halalilo, Monica Lopez, Destinee Sales and Brittany Yaxley.

The quintet went out with a bang. Cross knocked down 10 kills and had eight digs; Halalilo had two kills and two blocks; Lopez had an ace; Sales had match-high 13 kills and two blocks; and Yaxley put away nine kills and recorded a whopping seven aces.

La Verne took control of the first set with an early 7-1 run keyed by four combined kills from Cross and Sales. The Bulldogs never got any closer than five points and the Leopards went on to comfortably take the set.

The Bulldogs hit .281 as a team in the second while holding the Leopards to .054  and went out to a 12-8 lead in the second set. But the Leopards negated the advantage with seven aces in the set. After the Bulldogs took the 12-8 lead, La Verne immediately responded with a 7-1 run sparked by sharp serving from Yaxley. Yaxley had two aces during the stretch and Kelsi Robinson pitched in two kills. The Bulldogs tied it up at 18-18 on two kills by Ashton Martin but the Leopards promptly rattled off four straight points to create some cushion and took a 25-23 set win.

Yaxley served up two more aces in a 4-0 third set run that gave La Verne a 6-2 lead and the Leopards never looked back. The Leopards put down five aces in the set and hit an efficient .367 as a team.

Kailee McCoy had six kills to pace the Bulldogs.

La Verne wraps up its SCIAC schedule on Wednesday at Pomona-Pitzer.