Story by Sebastián Abdón Ibarra

The University of La Verne volleyball team won their first game of the Whittier Invitational against Pacific Lutheran to extend their winning streak to four but suffered a disappointing five-set loss to UC Santa Cruz after winning the first two sets. On the day there were plenty of positives to be found, but room for improvement.     

The Leos continued their dominant run of games as they defeated Pacific Lutheran in straight sets. It was the third time in just five games that the Leopards closed out a win in three sets.

Junior right-side hitter Ayana Mier continued to be the Leopards' most prolific scorer as she led all players with 12 kills and added a block for good measure. Julia Thomas, freshman middle blocker, continued to be a wall on defense with three blocks.

Pacific Lutheran made La Verne work to earn the first set. The Leopards battled back from an early deficit and the set remained within two points until the Leos scored the final two points to secure the set 26-24.

The Leopards got out to a much more comfortable lead in the second set until the Lutes mounted a late comeback to take a 23-22 lead. A couple of mistakes from Pacific Lutheran saved the set for the Leos as they went on to take the set 26-24 again. The final set was another tight affair that La Verne was able to find a way to win 25-21.

"Our mindset is to just play hard. We are just going to compete, and we are going to keep going and going," said University of La Verne volleyball head coach Jeff Hendershot.

In the second match of the day, the Leopards were taken to a fifth set for the first time this season. It looked like the Leopards were on their way to their fourth sweep of the season after winning the first two sets 25-17 and 25-19. The Leopards held a 19-16 lead in the third set but UC Santa Cruz rallied closing the set with a 9-4 run to force a fourth set and eventually win the match.

Mier led the Leopards with 14 kills in the match. Kari Esseff finished with 11 kills and Noelani Soma totaled 12 kills and 13 digs. Madison Smith, Emily Heldenbrand, and Kiley McGarry put in strong defensive efforts finishing with 18, 16, and 14 digs respectively.

"I think today, Santa Cruz is a really good volleyball team and they played a little cleaner down the stretch and that was the difference," said Hendershot.

UC Santa Cruz was led by the trio of Claire Okerlund, Sydney Ahrendt, and Samantha Taylor in the win. Okerlund, a senior outside hitter, led all scorers with 20 kills and a .304 hitting percentage. Fifteen of those kills came after the second set. Ahrendt, a sophomore right-side hitter, had 11 kills, eight of which came after the second set. Samantha Taylor, sophomore outside hitter, finished with 13 kills, with nine of them after the second set.

The offensive explosion by Okerlund, Ahrendt, and Taylor was the defining reason for UC Santa Cruz's improbable comeback. the Leos fought hard and kept the lead within striking distance in the fifth set before ultimately losing 15-11.

"I told them it's our first fifth set of the year. We learn from it, we figure out how to improve, how to get better, why did it happen, what do we fix, and that's it we got new games tomorrow and we'll just move on from there,'" said Hendershot.

The Leos play their final two games of the tournament with games at home on Saturday against the University of Puget Sound at 1:30 pm and Whitworth University at 6:30 pm.