SAN ANTONIO — The No. 18 University of La Verne volleyball team lost to a pair of Texas powerhouses on the final day of the Trinity University National Invitational.
La Verne falls to 20-7 on the season.
Game 1: No. 12 Southwestern (Texas) 3, La Verne 0
Brittany Yaxley had nine kills and Ashlyn Cross had eight, but Southwestern ran off big chunks of points in each of the three sets en route to a 25-22, 25-21, 25-23 win.
The Leopards had a 13-12 lead in the first set, but the Pirates went on an 8-2 lead to run away to a 20-15 lead and never looked back. La Verne made a late push, rattling off four straight points late to get within 23-22, but Southwestern finished it off with kills from Kate Mitchell and Kaitlyn Foster.
The second set played out similarly. The Leopards grabbed a 15-14 lead in the middle of the set, but the Pirates strung together six points in a row to take a 20-15 lead and never relinquished it.
After the Leopards took five of the first seven points of the third set, the Pirates responded with a 9-1 run to grab control. La Verne tied it up at 23-23 but that was as close as it got.
Game 2: Trinity (Texas) 3, La Verne 0
La Verne's offensive struggles continued as no Leopard reached double digits in kills for the second match in a row. Trinity won, 25-16, 27-25, 25-15, in a rematch of last year's NCAA National Championship first round match.
After a back-and-forth start to the first set, the Tigers blitzed the Leopards with a 14-3 run to claim the set.
The Leopards battled back in the second and fended off a 25-24 match point, but lost the set on a kill and block.
La Verne fell behind, 15-5, in the third and never bounced back.
Up next
The Leopards will take on Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in the first round of the 2015 SCIAC Postseason Tournament, hosted by Cal Lutheran, on Thursday.