(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) It was not pretty, but a win is a win.
The women's volleyball team took the court on Saturday against the University of La Verne and after five sets, snuck away with a win (25-21, 23-25, 21-25, 25-21, 15-8).
Both of the teams came out with a bang, racking up the kills in the first set- battling back and forth. "It was neck and neck. La Verne is a good team. They had a strong block and really good defense," explained head coach Patti Cook.
While the Leopards tallied 15 kills to the Warriors 12, they also tallied more errors, which the Warriors capitalized on and won the set 25-21.
Things went a bit downhill from there. Throughout the next three sets, Westmont made 24 attacking errors and 6 service errors, making it very difficult for them to find a healthy and continual rhythm in their offense. Thankfully, La Verne was making mistakes as well (27 attack errors, 3 service errors). By the end of game four, both teams were each sitting right around 30 total errors on the match.
Since neither team was able to string together more than two or three points in a row, the sets were all very close. It was not until the fifth game of the set that Westmont took off running and did not look back. The Warriors rallied some energy and took down the Leopards 15-8. Westmont tallied seven kills and two blocks to win the final set of the match, allowing everyone in the gym to breathe a collective sigh of relief.
"Today we had more errors than I would like to see. As a team I'd like to have a higher hitting percentage. When we were struggling, I encouraged the team to be a little more creative with their offensive choices. Once they started doing that, it opened up the court and they had more success" discussed Cook.
In the midst of the struggle, there were a couple of standout players for the Warriors. Senior Ciena Colburn had another impressive performance on the court, tallying a team high of 17 kills in the match. She was followed both Mila Maricic and Taylor Beckman who earned 12 kills apiece.
"I thought that Ciena did a great job transitioning, working hard and putting up a solid block. She's been playing well recently and I want to keep that going," encouraged Cook, "Mila was her normal, steady self. You always know she's going to perform well."
In an often overlooked position on the right side, it was evident that Sydney Stiff was giving La Verne a run for their money. Her ability to not only reach high, but hit multiple shots kept the Leopards guessing on what she was going to do next. She finished with nine kills and only one error on 24 attempts, putting her at a solid hitting percentage of .333.
"I thought that Sydney was excellent on the right side. She has such a high reach and snap on the ball. She was giving their block and defense a lot of problems," raved Cook.
With this win, the Warriors progress to 5-6 on the season and are on the road in Carlsbad for their match against UC San Marcos this Tuesday at 5pm.
