CMS Volleyball Sweeps Concordia, Puget Sound to Conclude 4-0 Weekend

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Senior Amanda Walker had 12 kills and sophomore Jackie Jones added 11 as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps volleyball team earned a 3-0 win over Concordia (Texas) on Saturday on the second day of the Cal Lu Fornia Invitational, before capping off the weekend with another 3-0 win over Puget Sound.

Set scores were 25-17, 25-22 and 25-14 against Concordia and 25-18, 25-13, 25-23 against Puget Sound. The wins improve CMS to 7-1 on the young season, including five straight wins since being upset by Augsburg in five sets. The Athenas bounced back to defeat St. Olaf after dropping the Augsburg match, and then swept UC Santa Cruz, Linfield, Concordia and Puget Sound by 3-0 scores this weekend. 

In the Concordia match, Walker had 12 kills in 21 attempts while hitting .476 for her third straight match in double figures at the Cal Lu Fornia Invitational. Junior Regan Dinovitz led the front-row defense with six blocks, while senior libero Sarah Tritschler paced the back down with 14 digs. Against Puget Sound, junior middle hitter Melanie Moore hit .538 with eight kills in only 13 attempts and added five blocks. 

CMS got the momentum right from the start, jumping out to an 8-1 lead in the first set, with Walker picking up two kills and a block during the spurt. Concordia got back within four points twice, but sophomore Jackie Jones had a pair of kills to help CMS push its lead up to double digits at 20-10, and first-year setter Spencer Hagenbuch finished it off with a kill off an assist from Jones to make the first set a 25-17 final.

The second set was closer as Concordia was able to surge in front late in the set 20-19 before CMS went on a finishing kick to take the set 25-22. Moore started and ended a 4-0 run with kills to make the score 23-20, with Jones adding a service ace in between. Another Moore kill made it 24-21, and after Concordia fought off the first set point, Jones finished it with a kill to give CMS the 2-0 lead.

CMS then used a similar formula to the first set in order to complete the sweep, jumping out to a quick 9-1 lead before going on to the 25-14 win. Dinovitz started the set off with a kill and then had two straight blocks to make the score 8-1. Concordia closed to within 13-9, but the Athenas answered and pushed the lead back up to 19-10 on a Madsen ace, before a Moore kill finished off the match.

In the Puget Sound match, CMS broke open a 15-13 score in the first set to take a 25-18 win. Moore had a kill and a block on successive points in a 6-1 run to build the lead up to 21-14, and Moore and Madsen had back-to-back kills to push the lead to 24-17 before the Athenas won on a service error. 

A 10-0 run quickly turned a 2-1 deficit in the second set into an 11-2 Athena lead, with Jones providing two kills and a block during the run. A kill from junior hitter Lucila Grinspan pushed the lead to 20-9 and CMS went on to cruise to the 25-13 win. 

Puget Sound put up a battle in the third set to try to stay in the match, as the Athenas were never able to get any separation, with their largest lead of the set only three (21-18). With the score 23-22, though, Grinspan had kills for the final two CMS points, the second of which made the final set score 25-23 and final match score 3-0.

CMS will be back in action next weekend when it heads to Saint Louis for the East-to-West Challenge, where it will face No. 1 Emory, No. 3 Juniata and host Washington University.