Photo by Shira Oneal-Abend

Story by Sebastián Abdón Ibarra, Sports Information Student Assistant 

LA VERNE, CA — The University of La Verne volleyball team dropped a hard-fought conference game 3-1 to the Pomona Pitzer Sagehens Tuesday night. The Leos captured the first set handily but lost the next three including a gusty 30-28 loss in a crucial third set. 

Set Scores: 19-25, 25-16, 30-28, 25-17

The Leopards and Sagehens split the first two sets of the match, with neither team seemingly in control of the game yet. The entire third set was an emotional rollercoaster as both teams captured and then conceded momentum. It accounted for 16 of the 27 total tie scores and 10 of the 15 lead changes in the match. Past the halfway point the set was tied 18-18 but the Sagehens rallied to a set-point up 24-21 and it looked like the Leos were ready to drop the set. With their backs against the wall at 24-21, La Verne stormed back to tie the game at 24-24 with a heater from Noelani Soma. The teams battled to a 28-28 tie until the Sagehens capitalized off a La Verne error and a kill from Grace fan gave Pomona-Pitzer the 30-28 win.

"I think anytime you go into extra points those sets carry a lot of weight. When you win them it's a great momentum builder, when you lose them it's tough to come back from," University of La Verne volleyball head coach Jeff Hendershot said.

That third set proved to be a massive turning point in the game that the Leos were unable to recover from as the Sagehens comfortably won the clinching fourth set to walk away with the win. 

Soma gave it her all to attempt to push the Leos to a win as she led all scorers with a season-high 16 kills and six digs. Ayana Mier added another 10 kills to give her 128 kills on the season. Jasmine Chandler made the most of her opportunities with five kills on just six attempts for an absurd kill percentage of .833. Emily Heldenbrand, Madison Smith, and Kiley McGarry all kept the ball off the ground for the Leos with 24, 19, and 17 digs respectively. 

The lineup has been relatively unchanged since opening day for La Verne, but things could begin to shift as Jordyn Patton made her fourth appearance after not seeing the court in La Verne's five previous games. 

"Yea I think she has shown us some stuff in practice and we're trying to get that third attacker by running a 6-2 so we can have a little more balance and a little more dynamic offense," Hendershot said.  

The two Chloes, Kerstein and Gill, both led the way offensively for Pomona Pitzer with 11 each. Lauren Asato was busy on defense with 25 digs. 

The Leopards move to 4-7 overall and 0-4 in the SCIAC. The Sagehens improve their record to 5-6 and 2-1 in conference action.

La Verne's next game is on Friday at Whittier College at 7:00 pm.