Melanie Williams Has Career Night to Lead CMS Volleyball Past Caltech

PASADENA, Calif. – Sophomore Melanie Williams had career highs of 18 kills and seven blocks as the No. 5 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps volleyball team overcame a first-set defeat to earn its 20th win for the seventh year in a row and maintained its share of first place in the SCIAC with a 3-1 win over Caltech on Tuesday evening.

Set scores were 22-25, 25-15. 25-17, 25-22 as Caltech fought off seven match points down 24-15 in the fourth before the Athenas finally finished it off. The win improves CMS to 20-3 overall this year and 11-1 in SCIAC play with four league matches still remaining on the schedule. The Athenas came into the day tied with Chapman, which hosted La Verne on Tuesday night, but with the tiebreaker advantage and in control of its own destiny for the top seed in the SCIAC Tournament, which will be held November 7-9.

The Athenas have now also reached the 20-win season every year since 2013, including a 31-win season in 2017 when they won the NCAA Division III national championship. Their fewest wins during the current seven-season stretch was 23 during the 2016 campaign (23-4).

Williams, who only played in three matches as a first-year in 2018 due to injury, broke her previous career high of eight kills, which she set last season at Caltech. Her previous high in blocks was four, also sat at Caltech last season. 

The match wasn't as easy as the Athenas would have liked against a Caltech team that has won four SCIAC matches this season and now stands at 10-12 overall (4-8 in the league). CMS won the first meeting this season on Oct. 4 by dominating from the outset, winning 25-11, 25-13, 25-10. This time, though, the Beavers stayed right with CMS throughout the first set, and then with the score tied 22-22, closed on a 3-0 run to take it 25-22.

The second set saw CMS assert itself in the early going, pulling ahead 7-2 on an ace from senior defensive specialist Lina Aluzri. Caltech got back within 11-7, but CMS used a 5-0 run, keyed by two kills apiece from first-year Izzy Sakoda and junior Regan Dinovitz, to stretch the lead to nine. The Beavers bounced back again to close to 17-12, but Williams had three kills in a row to make it an eight-point lead, and junior Melanie Moore finished it off with a kill.

CMS used another early run to take control of the third set, rattling off six straight points for a 9-4 lead, capped off by a service ace from senior Sarah Tritschler. Caltech kept it interesting and was within 18-14 late in the set, but a 5-1 CMS run, capped off by two straight blocks from Moore and Dinovitz, made it a 23-15 lead. Caltech got the next two points, but first-year Izzy Sakoda had a kill to bring it to set point, and a Caltech error gave the Athenas the 25-17 win and a 2-1 lead.

The Athenas jumped out to a 12-5 lead in the fourth set on a kill from sophomore Jackie Jones, and led 19-10 after an Aluzri ace and a block from Jones and Dinovitz. Williams had her 18th kill, and Madsen followed with a block and a kill to make the lead 24-15, before CMS ended up settling for the 25-22 final set win.

Jones was also in double figures in kills for CMS with 12, while Madsen had eight kills, 25 assists and eight digs. Tritschler led the back row with 18 digs, while first-year setter Spencer Hagenbuch had 13 assists.  

CMS will next be in action when it returns to Roberts Pavilion on Friday night to meet Sixth Street rival Pomona-Pitzer at 7 p.m. It was also serve as Senior Day, as the program will honor its four seniors, Lina Aluzri, Phoebe Madsen, Sarah Tritschler and Amanda Walker, prior to the contest. The quartet was part of the 2017 CMS national championship team as sophomores.