By Jacob Norling
November 11, 2023
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) Westmont Volleyball played a thriller of a four-set match against the Point Loma Sea Lions on Saturday night, but in the end, the road team proved to be too much to handle. Westmont fell behind 2-0 before forcing a fourth-set, but the team could not force a fifth as the Sea Lions won it to clinch at least a share of the PacWest title.
"I'm proud of the rebound from the APU match," said Westmont head coach
Ruth McGolpin. "Our passing was stellar, with Kai and Phoebe anchoring that, and I'm proud of our grit tonight. We had opportunities to win it in set one, but still, we never said die, and we never said never."
Westmont fans could point to the end of the first set as to where the match was lost, as the Warriors led 24-22 with a pair of chances to end it. Instead, a PLNU kill and a Westmont attacking error led to an extended first set. Westmont led as late as 28-27, but at that point, Point Loma recorded a kill to tie, before taking advantage of a pair of Warrior errors to win it 30-28.
A competitive second set saw the two sides trade blows to an 18-18 tie, but then the Sea Lions scored on an ace and three kills to push the score to 22-18. Minutes later, a Point Loma block gave the visitors a 25-21 win to take a 2-0 advantage.
Westmont trailed 20-18 in the third set in danger of getting swept, but instead turned it around to score six consecutive points. Eventually,
Alexis Dennick connected for a kill to give Westmont a 25-22 win in set three.
In the fourth set, things began to fall apart following a 13-13 tie. Following the draw, Point Loma scored seven unanswered points to take a commanding 20-13 lead. From there, it was only a matter of time. In the end, the Sea Lions capped off their four-set win with a kill to win in 25-17.
"We've been talking a lot about playing with no regrets, and we definitely played with no regrets tonight," assured McGolpin.
Westmont will conclude its season on Tuesday night in The Murch, when they host Concordia at 7:00 p.m. Links to tickets and live coverage will be available on the Westmont Athletics website.
"We need a fan base on Tuesday," urged McGolpin. "It'll be a blackout theme, and it's the all-athlete match as well. We need the crowd to be there, and to be boisterous. Two seniors who have given four years want to walk away winners on Tuesday.
"Phoebe pointed out that it's the first time in their careers they'll have the chance to win their last match since we haven't been in the final. It'll be fun to have a chance to win our last match of the season."
