CMS Volleyball Rolls to Another SCIAC Win, Defeats Pomona-Pitzer in Three

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The top-ranked CMS volleyball team reached the midway point of the conference schedule without dropping a set, as it rolled to a 25-18, 25-18, 25-12 win over Pomona-Pitzer on Saturday afternoon at Roberts Pavilion.

With the win, CMS now stands at 18-0 overall and 8-0 in SCIAC, winning all 24 of its sets in its first run through the conference schedule. Pomona-Pitzer, which entered the weekend in second place before falling to Cal Lutheran on Friday and CMS on Saturday, now stands at 10-6 overall and 5-3 in the league. 

Audrey Sawyer led CMS with 12 kills, and added nine blocks, while Brenna Bell had another efficient outing with 10 kills in 15 attempts, hitting .533. Dani Beder also had four kills in five attempts, hitting .800, while Jenna Holmes just missed a double-double with nine kills and 13 digs. 

Pomona-Pitzer put up a fight in the first two sets, trimming an 18-11 lead down to 19-17 in the first. However, Sawyer responded with a kill and then combined with Bell on a block to make it 21-17 and start a 4-0 run. The Sagehens got one point back, but Bell had a kill and Holmes put the ball down off an overpass to finish off the first set 25-18. 

The second set saw CMS jump out to an 8-2 lead, but the Sagehens were able to come back to within 10-9, before Holmes had three kills in a row to get the lead back to four. After Pomona-Pitzer closed to within 13-11, Beder had two kills sandwiched around another Holmes kill to make it 16-11. The Sagehens earned two straight point, but CMS had four kills in a row, two from Izzy Sakoda and two from Sawyer to push the lead to 20-13. Sakoda then capped off the set with a service ace for a 25-18 win and a 2-0 lead. 

CMS then was able to pull away in the third, after edging slowly out to a 14-9 lead, CMS had seven of the next eight points to stretch it 21-10, with Sawyer accounting for three points with two kills and a block. Bell had a block and two kills in a row to make it 24-11, and one point later, Holmes finished it off with a kill. 

The Athenas will be back in action on Tuesday when they start the second half of the double round-robin league schedule with a road match at Redlands at 7 p.m.