Bell Leads No. 1 CMS Volleyball to SCIAC Sweep of Occidental

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Brenna Bell had 12 kills in 14 attempts, hitting .857 for the match, to lead the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps volleyball team to a 3-0 sweep of Occidental in the SCIAC home opener for the Athenas on Friday evening at Roberts Pavilion.

Set scores were 25-15, 25-18, 25-18 as CMS moves to 12-0 overall and 2-0 in league play with the win, maintaining its stranglehold on both the top of the SCIAC standings and the national rankings. The Athenas were a unanimous pick for the No. 1 spot in the latest Division III poll, receiving all 90 first-place votes, and extended their conference winning streak to 29 matches (33 including the postseason tournament). 

As a team, CMS hit .444 on the match, with 50 kills in 99 attempts and a remarkably low total of only six errors. Georgia McGovern (22 assists) and Spencer Hagenbuch (18 assists) quarterbacked the CMS offense to an efficient evening, as the Athenas hit .531 in the first set, .414 in the second set and .395 in the third set. Dede Carranza had 12 digs to pace the CMS defense, while Jenna Holmes matched Bell with a team-high 12 kills. 

Bell led the way by hitting .857, putting down 12 kills without an error in only 14 attempts. Audrey Sawyer hit .500 with seven kills in 14 attempts, Lauren Parker had five kills in 11 attempts with no errors, and Brooke McKee came off the bench to hit .444.

Occidental did put up a strong fight in the third set, when it was tied 14-14, before Holmes had a kill and a solo block on back-to-back points to give CMS the lead for good. It was still a 20-17 score before Sawyer and McKee had two straight kills, and after Occidental got one point back, Izzy Sakoda, Bell, and McKee rattled off three straight kills to end it. 

CMS will be back in action tomorrow when it travels to La Verne for a 2 p.m. contest, before returning home to face Redlands on Tuesday night at 7 p.m.