(SANTA CLARITA, Calif.) After being down two sets to none against Embry-Riddle (Fla.), the Westmont women's volleyball team was able to rally back and win the match in five sets (21-25, 19-25, 25-17, 25-20, 15-10) tonight as they participated in a mid-season volleyball tournament at The Masters College.
The match was evenly played the entire way through. If you look at the stats, Westmont tallied 165 attack attempts to Embry-Riddle's 163, each team had five service errors and each team had 11 blocks. Statistically, they lined up well.
The key to this match came in the execution.
Westmont was getting more opportunities to put the ball away. With a 77 digs to Embry Riddles 59, the Warriors were able to get good balls up to their setters, who then could run an equal and balanced offense. The team found a rhythm early on and just kept chipping away until they solidified their win.
"We were down two sets and we knew that we had to kick it up a notch. Thankfully we did just that. Tonight was a great mental win for us," exclaimed head coach Patti Cook.
Due to the steady passing and setting execution from both Thompson and Nestlerode, Westmont was able to get multiple players racking up kills. Leading the charge was freshman Taylor Beckman who had an outstanding performance of 15 kills and just one error tonight. There were many times when Westmont needed to side-out and Beckman was there to finish the job. She was accompanied by senior middle blocker Ciena Colburn who was working with her setters to run multiple different attacks, allowing herself to rack up 12 kills, as well as five blocks for the evening.
"Our setters did a nice job of dishing out a well-balanced offense. On the pin, Taylor had a fantastic front row performance to match her steady and consistent passing" added Cook.
Sarah McGough and Sydney Striff also joined the double- digit kill club tonight tallying 12 and 10 kills respectively. Libero Kami Troesh owned the backcourt as she not only serve received well, but played quick defense. Troesh tallied 26 kills to help slow down Embry-Riddle's pin attackers.
"Our coverage got increasingly better as the match went on which is something that the stats won't show, but it was great for our morale on the court," closed out Cook.
Westmont advances to 13-11 overall, while remaining at 4-5 in GSAC. The team gets a few days to rest and recover before they hit the road trip for a trip to Phoenix to take on Arizona Christian on Thursday October 23 at 7PM.
