No. 8 Athenas Outlast No. 24 La Verne on the Road

LA VERNE, Calif. - The No.8 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's volleyball team outlasted the No. 24 La Verne Leopards 3-2 (17-25, 25-16, 24-26, 25-22, 15-10) on Tuesday night. The Athenas had to battle back. After dropping two of the first three sets, CMS trailed 15-11 in the fourth set but worked their way back to take the set 25-23 before claiming the final set in dramatic fashion, 15-10, to win the match 3-2.

Led by Shelbi Stein's (CMC) 12 kills, four different Athenas collected double-digit kills in the match to lead a true team victory for CMS.

Feeding off their home crowd, the Leopards jumped out to a 11-3 lead in the opening set. The Athenas clawed their way back into the game, closing the gap to as few as four at 17-13, but La Verne closed out the set on an 8-4 run and took the set 25-17.

In the second set, it was the Athenas' turn to jump out to an early lead. CMS took advantage of five La Verne errors, a service ace from Clara Madsen (CMC), and kills from Crystal Anderson (CMC), Regan Dinovitz (CMC), and Stein to stake a 10-3 lead. Just like the first set, the lead was skinnied down to four points at 17-13, but CMS won eight of the final 11 points to claim the set 25-16 and even the match at one game apiece.

After two sets where a team controlled from the opening serve, the third set was anyones for the taking. Early in the game, the Leopards quickly turned a 7-6 lead into an 11-7 advantage with a 4-1 burst.

CMS swiftly flipped that four-point deficit into a 14-11 lead with a 7-0 run while Clara Madsen stood at the service line. A 6-2 run gave the Leopards the lead right back at 17-16, but CMS would win the next two points and eventually hold a 24-23 advantage late in the set. La Verne connected on kills on the final three points to take the set 26-24.

With momentum from the end of the third set, La Verne ran out to leads of 12-8 and 15-11 in the fourth set. Consecutive kills by Stein, Dinovitz, and Margaux Arntson (CMC) pulled CMS within one at 15-14 and two errors by La Verne later, the Athenas held the lead. Down the stretch, the Leopards tied the set on three different occasions but CMS would force a decisive fifth set by winning the game 25-23. The Athenas broke a 23-23 tied by scoring the final two points of the set with a kill from Anderson and an error on the Leopards.

After La Verne and CMS split the first 12 points of the fifth set, the Athenas went on a 6-1 run to take control of the match. Dinovitz collected two kills during the run to propel CMS to the 12-7 lead. Two points for the Leopards made it 12-9, before Anderson connected on a kill and Clara Madsen earned a service ace to give CMS a 14-9 lead. Madison Maynes earned the next point for La Verne with a kill, but Shelbi Stein ended the match with her 12th kill of the night to give the Athenas a hard-fought, 3-2 (17-25, 25-16, 24-26, 25-22, 15-10), SCIAC victory.

With 28 assists on Tuesday, Clara Madsen has now dished out 20-plus assists in her last 10 matches. In her first 11 matches of the season, Madsen had four contests with 20-plus assists.

Following tonight's victory, the Athenas are on a nine-match winning streak and hold a 10-1 record in the SCIAC.

CMS will return home on Friday night for a match against the Chapman Panthers at 7:00 p.m. The Athenas will be looking for redemption after the Panthers handed CMS their only SCIAC loss of the season, 3-2 (18-25, 20-25, 25-21, 25-20, 25-23), back on Sept. 23.