By Tim Heiduk
August 27, 2019
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) The #23 Westmont volleyball team overcame a strong defensive effort by Antelope Valley to defeat the Pioneers in four sets (25-16, 22-25, 25-21, 25-14) on Tuesday night in its home opener.
 
"I think we got frustrated by how good of a defending team that was," said head coach Ruth McGolpin. "We are not used to somebody consistently digging and digging like that and us not coming up with solutions. I think that frustrated our setters and our opposite hitters for sure. Then our connection with our middles wasn't spot on, so it compounded."
 
After a back and forth first set, the Warriors seemed to get things going towards the end of the opening set after McGolpin called a timeout with her team up by two.
 
"The good news is in the first set when I called a timeout at 17-15, the other team only scored one more point," said McGolpin. "That was a huge thing for us. I felt that gave us both mental and physical strength."
 
Antelope Valley started off the second set strongly by taking a 3-0 lead, but the Warriors responded with six straight points and looked well on their way to taking a two set to none advantage. The visitors had other ideas though, battling back after a timeout to take a commanding 21-15 lead. With the score 22-17, Westmont rallied off five straight points to tie the set at 22-22. All the momentum seemed to favor the Warriors in front of their rowdy student section, but the visitors kept their nerve and finished off the set 25-22 to tie the match. It was the third time the Warriors have lost the second set in six games this season.
 
After Antelope Valley won the second set, the Pioneers started quickly in the third set to take a 5-1 lead. The Warriors responded with five straight points to take a 6-5 lead. Westmont extended its lead to five at 15-10 and later held a 17-13 advantage. Antelope Valley then came within one to make the score 17-16, prompting another McGolpin timeout.
 
The timeout had a similar effect to the one McGolpin called for in the first set, as the Warriors scored three straight to go ahead 20-16 and ultimately win the third set 25-21.
 
After Westmont did not play up to its capabilities in the first three sets, McGolpin urged her team to pick things up going into the fourth set. Her team did just that.
 
"Before we played the last game, I said to the players, 'Let's show these fans really what Westmont volleyball looks like because I know you're not comfortable with how we've been playing,'" said McGolpin. "They all agreed and then definitely set four was our best. They pulled it all together."
 
McGolpin credited her team's serving and tipping for the improved fourth set.
 
"I don't give serving signals, so they have free reign at the backline," said McGolpin. "I want them to be aggressive, but if we're not getting ace to errors, then it doesn't make sense. We've got to give ourselves a chance to play defense. In game three after we had I think four serving errors, I said, 'Let's keep the ball in play a little bit more with our serving,' so that was helpful. We did a better job of that in the fourth set.
 
"We also started to tip. They're hunkered down to play defense on their heels, so when we tipped, it allowed us to get kills and made it hard for them to play defense."
 
Hali Galloway and Brooklynn Cheney led the Warriors with 12 kills apiece, while Cassidy Rea pitched in 10 and Lexi Malone tallied eight.
 
"We have to establish the middles," said McGolpin. "In games one, two, and three there was no middle attack and I think that was part of the frustration level for the pin hitters because they were able to rotate around to play defense on their side against us and were digging lights out.
 
"What's satisfying to me is how the middles ended up. They started off sluggish and even though they didn't get a lot of kills, their percentages were high and that's what we need."
 
Lauren Friis led the team with 22 digs while Cheney added 11. Keelyn Kistner and Sydny Dunn recorded 23 and 19 assists respectively.
 
The team now travels to Nebraska for the Bellevue University GoSarpy.com Labor Day Classic this weekend. Westmont will play two games on both Friday and Saturday, including against #3 Grand View (Iowa) and #22 Bellevue (Neb.) on Friday.