Volleyball Beats Cross-Street Rivals 3-1

The women's volleyball team won their SCIAC opener on Tuesday evening over their cross-street rivals, Pomona-Pitzer, 23-25, 25-23, 25-17, 25-19.  CMS, who has played a difficult pre-season schedule featuring three nationally ranked teams, improved to 6-5 overall and 1-0 in SCIAC.

Smart setting from Taylor Jones (pictured) helped the Athenas jump out to an early lead in set 1, but the Sagehens took advantage of some late set service errors to close out set one 25-23 and take a 1-0 advantage on the match.  Set two was a different story as CMS made some minor adjustments and freshman middle blocker Monique Nguyen opened with one of her 15 kills on the match to send the Athenas on a roll.  Steady passing and defense from freshman Megan Coleman kept the Athenas on top as they held on to win the set 25-23.  Sets three and four were all Athenas, as sophomore Bennett Jones accumulated six of her eight kills over the next two games, and helped CMS finish off Pomona-Pitzer 25-17 and 25-19 to take the match in 4 sets.  Tough serving and consistent swings on the outside from lone senior Emily Hudson (11 kills) and freshman Regina Mullen (13 kills) helped keep momentum on the Athenas' side for the duration of the match.  Jones and Coleman turned in strong statistical performances with 46 assists and 28 digs respectively. 

Up next for the Athenas are two home conference matches against Cal Lutheran and La Verne.  Cal Lutheran comes into Ducey Gymnasium Friday night at 7:30pm and La Verne takes on CMS on Saturday at 6:00pm.