CMS Volleyball Closes In on SCIAC Regular Season Title with Sweep of Caltech

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps volleyball team pulled within one win of clinching the top seed in next week's SCIAC Tournament with a 25-10, 25-19, 25-16 win over Caltech on Tuesday night at Roberts Pavilion.

With the win, eighth-ranked CMS stands at 18-5 overall and 12-2 in the SCIAC, needing to win one of its final two games (at Chapman on Friday, home against Occidental on Saturday) to clinch at least a share of the regular season title and the top seed in the SCIAC Tournament.  La Verne and Pomona-Pitzer are both 11-3, but CMS would have the tiebreaker with either (or both in a three-way tie). Caltech slips to 6-16 overall and 3-11 in the SCIAC with the loss. 

CMS used an 11-0 run in the first set to turn a 10-8 lead into a commanding 21-8 advantage. Georgia McGovern had two aces during the run, while Brenna Bell and Jenna Holmes each had two kills. Dede Carranza capped off the set with an ace for a 25-10 win. 

Caltech hung tougher in the second set, as CMS wasn't able to pull away until a 4-0 close stretched a 21-19 lead into a 25-19 set win. Lauren Parker and Holmes had kills during the closing stretch. 

The Athenas then had a similar spurt in the third set that it had in the first, using an 8-0 run to pull ahead 18-9, once again on McGovern's serve, who had three aces during the run. Dani Beder finished off the win with an assist from Shelby McIlroy to take the third set 25-16 and the match 3-0. 

Holmes led CMS with 15 kills in 33 attempts, while Lauren Parker had nine kills in 19 attempts with no errors to hit a team-high .474. Senior Izzy Sakoda had a career-high 20 digs to lead the CMS defense, while Carranza had 12, and McGovern had 33 assists to go with her five service aces. 

CMS will head to the road on Friday before closing out the regular season at home against Occidental on Saturday at 4 p.m., which will also be the program's Senior Day.