By Ron Smith

Taylor Beckman tallied 10 kills and a .421 attack percentage to lead #3 Westmont Volleyball to a sweep of Vanguard (5-11, 2-1 GSAC) in tonight's Golden State Athletic Conference match. As a result, the Warriors improved their record to 16-0 overall and 5-0 in GSAC play. The Warriors recorded set scores of 25-8, 25-19 and 25-9.

The Warriors used a balanced attack to take down the Lions with five players producing six or more kills. Sam Neely connected for a team high .583 hitting percentage and notched seven kills. Libby Dahlberg, Cassidy Rea and Mila Maricic added six more kills each, hitting .455, .444 and .421 respectively.

As a team, Westmont produced an attack percentage of .337 while holding Vanguard to under zero.

In the first set, the Warriors committed just one attack error in 20 attempts. Up 11-6, Westmont went on a 14-2, including winning the final eight points, to claim the first set.

The Lions rallied in the second set and took a 14-12 lead. Westmont responded with a 4-0 run that included kills from Beckman and Rea and block by Dahlberg and Rea. Vanguard kept the game close, pulling to within one at 19-18.

A pair of kills by Beckman and Dahlberg made the score 21-18 before Vanguard's Chelsea Taylor made it 21-19 with a kill for the Lions. However, the Warriors closed out the set with four straight points including a kill by Neely, a service ace by Alexa Nestlerode and a kill by Dahlberg.

In the third set, Dahlberg served for eight straight points to give the Warriors a 15-4 advantage. Vanguard never recovered.

In other GSAC action, #13 Biola (13-6, 4-1) lost at The Master's (11-5, 4-1) in five sets (25-20, 19-25, 23-25, 25-18, 16-14). As a result, Westmont has taken sole possession of first place with Biola and The Master's tied for second one game back.

Westmont will host Biola in Murchison Gymnasium on Saturday evening at seven o'clock.