CMS Volleyball Sweeps Whittier, Clinches Top Seed in SCIAC Tournament

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The top-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's volleyball team, the only undefeated team at any level of NCAA volleyball, secured at least a share of the regular season title and the top seed in the SCIAC Tournament with a 25-11, 25-16, 25-13 win over Whittier on Tuesday evening at Roberts Pavilion.

With the win, CMS moves to 24-0 on the season and 14-0 in SCIAC, putting it two games ahead of second-place Cal Lutheran (12-2) with two games to play. However, the Athenas have already swept the Regals head-to-head and would have the tiebreaker if they both ended up 14-2. Whittier falls to 9-14 overall and 5-9 in league play with the loss. 

CMS had strong balance as nobody reached double figures in kills, although three Athenas had nine, with Izzy Sakoda registering nine in only 14 attempts, hitting .500, while Jenna Holmes and Brooke McKee also had nine. Summer Ellis had eight in 10 attempts to hit .800, while Audrey Sawyer had eight in 13 attempts for a .462 percentage. CMS, which came into the night leading the nation in hitting percentage by a huge margin (.316 to .274), improved even higher after a .365 performance as a team. 

In the first set, CMS had 20 kills and 21 digs, while holding Whittier to only two kills as it took a 25-11 win. Dede Carranza (20 digs) and Jenna Holmes (14 digs) led the defensive effort, that produced 52 digs, while allowing the Poets only 14 kills (and 14 errors for a .000 percentage). 

Whittier put up its strongest fight in the second set, pulling to within 15-12, but the Athenas came back with five points in a row to take a 20-12 lead. After the Poets pulled to within 21-16, CMS took the last four points, two on aces by Sonia Bliss. In between, Ellis had a wild kill when Carranza's dig hit the net and appeared to be falling to the floor for a Poet point, but Ellis laid out to knock the ball back up into the net, and it spun over and landed on the Whittier side of the floor. 

The third set stayed close for a little while, with the Poets trailing just 14-11 at one point, before CMS rattled off eight points in a row to run a away with it. Izzy Sakoda finished off the match with a cross-court kill for a 25-13 third set. 

CMS will be back in action on Friday when it travels to Occidental for a 7 p.m. contest before closing out the regular season at home against La Verne on Saturday at 4 p.m. CMS will then host a semifinal on Thursday, Nov. 3 at 7 p.m. and would host the championship on Saturday, Nov. 5 if it advances.