Despite dropping the opening set, the University of La Verne volleyball team rallied to take the next three frames to post a 3-1 road triumph over the University of Redlands in SCIAC action Friday night at Currier Gymnasium.

The Bulldogs, in search of their first conference win, jumped on the Leopards in the first set by recording the first eight points of the match.  La Verne would not recover as Redlands maintained its comfortable margin on its way to a 25-17 set win.

La Verne responded to knot the contest at 1-1.  With the set tied at 11, the Leopards took the lead for good on a Bulldog attack error.  A kill by Randi Taylor-Toomay pushed the La Verne advantage to 20-15.  The Leopards would close out the set with a service ace by Morgan Donohue followed by a kill from Catie Logan to earn a 25-20 set triumph. 

In the third set, the Leos took a 13-10 lead only to watch Redlands take four of the next five points earn a tie at 14-14. The Bulldogs continued their momentum to take a 20-18 advantage.  Down 21-19, the Leopards earned back-to-back kills from Logan and Kraiss along with a Bulldog attack error to retake the lead at 22-21.

With the score tied at 22, Kraiss sent a ball over the net for a kill and a 23-22 edge.  After the Bulldogs knotted the score at 23-23, Taylor-Toomay stepped up for the Leopards, as she crushed one of her match-high 21 kills to make it 24-23.  The Leopards would take the next point on a Redlands error to go up 2-1.

The Leopards wrapped up the contest with a strong finish to the fourth set.  La Verne went on a 7-1 scoring run culminating on a Kayla Cribbs kill for a 20-14 cushion.  Up 24-17, Cribbs posted the final point of the contest with a match-ending kill for a 25-17 set win and a 3-1 triumph.

La Verne (9-1, 2-1 SCIAC) gained 21 kills and five block assists from Taylor-Toomay.  Cribbs tallied a match-high seven block assists while Kraiss dished out 45 assists for the Leopards.

Redlands (4-6, 0-4 SCIAC) was led by Jackie Starks and Courtney Johnson with 10 kills each in the loss.

The Leopards continue conference road action Saturday when it battles Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in a 5:00 pm start at Ducey Gymnasium.