By Jacob Norling
October 17, 2025
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) Westmont Volleyball (7-11, 2-3 PacWest) came oh so close to knocking off #6 Point Loma (16-2, 5-0) on Friday night, but instead the would-be win of the season turned into another night of silver linings in a five-set loss.
 
A night of almost-thrilling moments began in the first set, when PLNU and Westmont were knotted at 21-all. Then, a pair of Westmont attacking errors followed by a pair of Point Loma kills allowed the visitors to claim set one. The second set saw Westmont respond in grand fashion, leading by as many as seven in an eventual 25-19 win.
 
Fans then felt the momentum then shift in set three, when the Warriors turned a 17-17 tie into a 25-20 win. The good vibes only grew stronger from there, when a kill from libero Rylee Elias of all people highlighted an 11-4 run to start the fourth set. By that time, Point Loma had elected to call timeout for the final time on Friday. That statement would have been good news had the match ended in four, but as it turned out, the Warriors would eventually call time on four more occasions. That is because the Warriors were unable to take advantage of a once 19-11 lead in set four, before finally giving way to the Sea Lions in the fifth.
 
A furious 11-3 run from Point Loma saw the road team tie things at 22 in the fourth, but still, a kill from Camila Cornejo-Farmer had the Warriors within a pair of victory at 23-22. Then, PLNU would score four of the set's final five points (26-24) to force a fifth set that seemed highly improbable just minutes prior.
 
In the fifth set, Point Loma quickly had its sight on the finish line, when an 8-2 run silenced The Murch in what felt like an instant. The Sea Lions would never let the Warriors get closer than four in an eventual 15-9 win that gave Point Loma its eighth-consecutive win over Westmont dating back to 2011.
 
"Close doesn't matter until it's horseshoes or hand grenades," chuckled Westmont head coach Ruth McGolpin. "Unfortunately, losing set one turned out to be pretty big. Still, I'm really proud of the team for sets two and three. I mean, we had 'em on the ropes in set four. There were just too many mistakes.
 
"When you get a team like that, that is number-six in the country, of course they are going to be raring to go in a fifth set. That's a fourth set you just have to win if you want to beat a team like this."
 
McGolpin still noted the vast improvement from last weekend's match in San Diego, when the Sea Lions disposed of the Warriors in three.
 
"It's night and day, the difference between last weekend and tonight," said McGolpin. "Yesterday we worked a ton on scrappy defense, and on our blocking. Those two areas are where we really excelled at times tonight."
 
Individually, Maddie Finnegan, Nariah Prescott, and Audrey all collected 13 kills. Sierra McClure collected 25 assists, while Lily Underwood added in 20 of her own. Finnegan also led Westmont with 26 digs, while Elias recorded 17 as well.
 
McGolpin continued, "Yeah, it is a tough one, but we fought. The fact that we took them to five after how last weekend went, I was proud of the team. Again, for how tough this is or how exciting it would have been to win, it was another non-countable game in the conference standings. I reminded the team tonight there is still a lot of volleyball left to play. There are a lot of countable matches right in front of us, and if we can just replicate sets two and three from tonight, we are going to be fine."
 
Westmont will travel to Hawaii next week for a pair of countable matchups on the Islands. First up is a date with Chaminade on Thursday night.