Westmont College Athletics

By Ron Smith
November 4, 2026
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) Westmont Volleyball (14-11, 11-6 PacWest) extended its win streak to six games by defeating Vanguard (7-17, 5-12) on Wednesday night in straight sets (25-15, 25-11, 25-19). With the win, the Warriors kept their hopes alive for a possible berth in next week's PacWest Championship.
 
Westmont had an efficient offensive attack, hitting .442 for the match. The Warriors tallied 38 kills with only four errors in 77 attempts.
 
"That is incredible as a team," said Westmont's head coach Ruth McGolpin about the offensive output. "What is great about this is that it is a well-balanced offense. All of the hitters contributed."
 
Audrey Hyde and Valerie Coward each tallied nine kills and recorded attack percentages of .471 and .348, respectively. Camila Cornejo-Farmer added another eight kills on ten attempts, posting a .700 attack percentage. Ceanna O'Loughlin added another seven kills while hitting .500.
 
"One of the things I said in our after-game talk was that we could not have done it without great passing," pointed out McGolpin. "We rely a lot on the defensive specialists and liberos and they came through for us."
 
At 6-5 in the opening set, Westmont went on a 6-1 run that included a service ace by Rylee Elias and three kills in a row by Cornejo-Farmer. The run turned out to be the decisive moment of the first set, which the Warriors won by a score of 25-15. Cornejo-Farmer and Coward had five kills each in the set. The Warriors' 16 kills on 24 attempts with just one error resulted in an attack percentage of .625 for the opening frame.
 
Westmont started the second set on a 4-0 run that included two service aces by Alyson Wurster. The first block of the game made the score 8-3 in favor of the home team when Coward and Jordan Weston denied an attack from the Lions' right side hitter. Then Lily Underwood served up back-to-back aces before Weston and Maxine Meder sealed the net for the Warriors' second block to make the score 11-3.  
 
Still holding an eight-point advantage at 16-8, the Warriors scored the next four points, concluding with a block by Weston and Hyde. With the score 20-9, Westmont finished off the set on a 5-2 run with Meder delivering the final blow on a kill from the middle.
 
Hyde led the way offensively for the Warriors in the second set with three kills. Westmont had just eight kills on 18 attempts but did not produce an attack error, resulting in an attack percentage of .444. The rest of the Warriors' points came on five aces, three blocks and Vanguard errors.
 
"The thing we did well was to establish the middle quickly in sets one and two and that opened up the outside," explained McGolpin. "The world was their oyster for Ceanna and Val."
 
The two teams remained close early in the third set with neither holding more than a two-point advantage. Trailing 12-14, Westmont recorded a 5-0 run on the strength of a pair of kills from O'Loughlin, one kill by Cornejo-Farmer, and a block by Cornejo-Farmer and Meder. That made the score 17-14.
 
After a pair of sideouts by each team, Westmont extended the lead to 20-16 on a kill by Cornejo-Farmer that trickled down the Lions' side of the net. Another sideout by Vanguard made it 20-17, but kills by Coward and Hyde stretched the lead to 22-17, causing Vanguard to call a timeout. When play resumed, Hyde produced another kill from the right side before Vanguard made the score 23-18.
 
Hyde delivered again, giving the Warriors match point at 24-18. However, the Lions forced another sideout to advance the score to 24-19. Coward had the honors of the final kill, hitting the ball cross court from the left side.
 
O'Loughlin and Hyde each contributed four kills in the final set with Coward and Cornejo-Farmer adding three.
 
For the game, the Warriors tallied 10 service aces while making just three service errors. Wurster and Lily Underwood each recorded three and Malia de Jesus added two.
 
"The serving was absolutely incredible," noted McGolpin. "We have been working on that in practice. We are taking more risks for the reward and it definitely paid off tonight. It's the best we have done all season long."
 
With the win, Westmont moves within a half game in the PacWest standings of fourth-place Hawai'i Hilo (19-8). To earn a berth in the PacWest Tournament, Westmont must win its remaining game at Point Loma (20-5, 15-2) on Saturday and Hilo must lose its two remaining games on Friday and Saturday against Chaminade and Hawai'i Pacific. If the two teams should end the season tied for fourth place in the PacWest, Hilo would get the tournament invitation because the Vulcans hold the tiebreaker.
 
Saturday's game between Westmont and Point Loma is available to watch on the PacWest Network, which can be accessed via links on the Westmont Athletics website (athletics.westmont.edu).