By
Jarred Davis
September 29, 2018
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) Westmont Volleyball (13-4, 4-3 GSAC), ranked at number 11 in the NAIA, kept momentum rolling Saturday afternoon with a 3-1 Golden State Athletic Conference victory over Menlo (7-5, 4-4). Even though the Oaks were able to come back and win the first set (25-23), the Warriors stayed resilient and went on to sweep the next three sets 25-21, 25-18 and finally 25-19.
"I really liked the way the team maintained composure after that first set loss and kept on fighting in the next three games," said head coach
Patti Cook. "Seemed like we didn't give up a lot of runs after that, we really put our foot on the break on their runs. A lot of that was due in part to our passing, good decisions by our setters and our offensive coming through in a really aggressive way."
Samantha Neely led the way and pounded 16 kills and produced a .433 attack percentage as the Warriors won the margin of kills, 65 to 49.
"[Samantha] really showed herself as a true athlete in these past two games, she really showed up for her team in a big way." added Cook. "She was nervous didn't wanna let her team down but she set that aside and played the best that she could. The best that she can is really, really good."
Joining Neely in double-digit kills was a trio of Warriors;
Cassidy Rea,
Hali Galloway and
Brooklynn Cheney added 15, 14 and 12 kills, respectively.
"Both of our outside hitters had a really good production game, 12 kills and 14 kills a piece, they did a fantastic job of taking care of in-system sets, as well as out-of-system sets," said Cook. "I love seeing them be just really aggressive in that whole back."
"Cassidy is really hard to stop. She's got every hit in the book so she definitely uses that to her advantage, so it was great to see our offense get into a really good rhythm."
Westmont wasted no time looking to put the final set away, jumping out to a 12-9 lead on their way to a 25-19 win to finish off the match
The Warriors now will have two days before they travel to El Cajon, (Calif.) for an important GSAC matchup against San Diego Christian on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m.
