Athenas Volleyball Split with Redlands and Whittier

The CMS Athenas split in wins and losses last weekend. On Friday, the Athenas traveled to University of Redlands. The Athenas came out flat, and fell victim to a strong Redlands' block, committing 10 attacking errors in set one before losing 16-25. CMS rallied back in set 2 behind the play of junior outside hitter, Allie Macy (Walnut, CA) and improved their hitting average to .263 to win 25-22. The teams matched each other point for point in the third set before Redlands went on a 4 point run to take a 13-9 lead. CMS answered with its own 4 point off Taylor Jones' (Scottsdale, AZ) serve, but the Athenas serve receive failed and the team gave up 7 points and could not recover, falling 17-25. The fourth set was more of the same. A battered serve receive and multiple attacking errors resulted in a 13-25 loss in the fourth set.

 The Athenas were led offensively by Macy who finished the night with 11 kills off setter Taylor Jones who had 28 assists. Jessica Waggoner led both teams with 27 digs.

 Saturday afternoon, the Athenas road trip continued as they traveled to Whittier College to take on the Poets. The CMS squad was ready, and dramatically reduced its unforced errors, hitting .444 in the first set, winning decisively 25-16. The Poets never settled into a rhythm as the Athenas notched 8 aces and gave up just 2 serve receive errors in the match en route to 25-15, 25-17 wins. Angella Estrella-Lemus (Jr., Gilroy, CA) notched 7 kills while senior middle blocker, Jamie Matusiak (Tucson, AZ) hit .500 with 8 kills of her own. Jenna Suttmeier was also excellent, picking up 11 kills to round out the offense. Setter, Taylor Jones led both teams with 41 assists. She also tallied 11 digs.

 The Athenas will travel to Caltech Tuesday evening (7:30) before returning to Ducey Gym to take on the Chapman University Panthers on Wednesday night at 7:00.