By Ron Smith
September 21, 2018
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) In a thrilling Golden State Athletic Conference match in front of 350 boisterous fans, #11 Westmont Volleyball (11-3, 2-2 GSAC) came up a bit short, falling to #21 Vanguard (15-2, 3-1) in five sets by scores of 21-25, 25-22, 19-25, 25-20 and 15-8.
 
"I thought it was a hard-fought battle," said Westmont head coach Patti Cook. "Both teams are very strong with a lot of offense and pretty good defense. The momentum kept shifting back and forth. It was a hard match to lose but a fun match to play.
 
"It is never fun to lose in our own house in front of a crowd like that," acknowledged Cook. "The crowd was incredible tonight. I think they helped shift the momentum our way a couple of different times. I'm very grateful to everyone who came out for tonight's match."
 
Vanguard produced 11 blocks during the match to help control the Warriors' offense. Westmont, by contrast, was credited with just four.
 
"We knew coming in that Vanguard had some good tough hitters," said Cook. "What we didn't anticipate was that they would cover so well. It felt like we got a lot more blocks than the four on the box score, but I think what it came down to is that they were picking up on a lot of balls and were super scrappy.
 
"When our normal .300 hitters are hitting under .200, I think it is a combination of their defense and their block. We needed to put more balls away than we did. With a good block, they were creating some difficulty for us to put the ball away."
 
The Warriors had a team attack percentage of just .132 while the Lions notched a .195 average.
 
Libby Dahlberg led the Warriors with 12 kills and Samantha Neely tallied 11. Hali Galloway notched another 10.
 
Defensively, the Warriors produced 111 digs, which ranks sixth in the team's single-game records. Lauren Friis recorded 32 digs, Brooklynn Cheney had 29 and Madison Morrison added 17.
 
"Lauren and Brooklynn were leading the way in our defensive effort," said Cook. "I also really liked the defensive effort of Maddy coming in. She got a lot of balls up as well. It was fun to see her be scrappy and dive into the seams."
 
As a result of tonight's loss, Westmont has fallen into fifth place in the GSAC standings, two games behind league-leading The Master's who is 15-3 overall and 4-0 in conference play.
 
"The strength of the conference is increasing every year," said Cook. "We are used to running the conference at the top the last two years. We got to a nice comfortable position doing that, but now we are going to have to scratch and claw to secure a top position."
 
Westmont will look to begin that climb back to the top tomorrow night when they take on the Royals of Hope International in Fullerton. First serve is scheduled for seven o'clock.