After losing to #9 Azusa Pacific in five sets on Thursday, #4 California Baptist (21-7, 10-6 GSAC) may have felt they had something to prove. If so, they left no doubt in the minds of Warrior fans in Murchison Gymnasium as the Lancers powered their way to a 25-17, 25-14, 25-20 sweep of Westmont (9-18, 3-13 GSAC) on Saturday.
“They may be player-for-player the most physical team in our conference,” said head coach Jim Smoot. “With our depleted roster, it’s very hard for us to match up. We had zero blocks for the match which tells that we didn’t have the ability to stop their offense. We did okay offensively, but we had no answer for them.”
Westmont was led by senior middle blocker Laura Trudelle with seven kills and junior right side hitter Alison Sharp with six. Freshman setter Kailee Blair notched 25 assists for the Warriors and had three kills.”
“Kate Barton (5 kills) stepped in as an outside hitter did a great job, hitting .364 for us,” noted Smoot. “Kailee set a pretty good match and was effective with her kills.”
As a team, Westmont posted a .144 attack percentage compared to .353 by California Baptist. The Lancers recorded nine service aces to the Warriors’ two and tallied 7.5 team blocks.
Westmont has four games remaining in the regular season. Next week they will play at Hope International on Tuesday and at Concordia on Saturday. The final two games will be played at home on Friday and Saturday, November 14 and 15. On Friday, Westmont will host Point Loma Nazarene and on Saturday the Warriors will close out the season with San Diego Christian.
