CMS Volleyball Defeats 40th Straight SCIAC Opponent, Sweeps Redlands 3-0

REDLANDS, Calif. – The top-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps volleyball team stretched its winning streak to 19 games to start the season, and its SCIAC winning streak to 36 matches (40 including the SCIAC Tournament) with a 25-15, 25-11, 25-15 win over Redlands on Tuesday evening at Currier Gymnasium.

CMS now stands at 19-0 on the season and 9-0 in SCIAC, maintaining its hold as the unanimous No. 1 ranked team in the nation. The Athenas went 16-0 last year in league play for the first time ever, and won their last 11 SCIAC matches in 2019 after an early-season loss to Chapman. Redlands slips to 1-12 overall and 1-8 in league play.

Jenna Holmes had 15 kills in 26 attempts with only two errors, hitting .500. Jackie Jones had seven kills in 12 attempts for a .583 percentage, Summer Ellis had nine kills in 21 attempts, and setter Georgia McGovern tallied seven kills in 11 attempts to go with her 34 assists. Dede Carranza led the defensive effort with 19 digs, while adding three aces.

Redlands put up a battle in the first set, trailing just 17-13 after a 3-0 run, but the Athenas came back with a 5-0 run of their own to pull away. Jones had two kills during the run, while Ellis had a kill and an ace. A Kelsey Polhemus kill made the score 24-14, and McGovern capped off the set with a kill for a 25-15 win, as the Athenas hit .500 for the set with 21 kills in 40 attempts with just one error.

In the second set, CMS used a 9-0 run to turn a 4-4 tie into a 13-4 lead, capped off by an ace from Carranza. After Redlands snapped that run, CMS rattled off the next five points to lead 18-5 on an Ellis ace, before capping off the 25-11 win with an Ellis kill.  In the third set, Redlands led 10-8 before a 10-0 CMS run, keyed by four kills from Holmes in a span of five points, sent the Athenas on their way before Carranza wrapped up the match with an ace.  

CMS will be back in action on Friday night when it hosts Cal Lutheran in a battle between the first and second place teams in the conference.