After dropping the first two sets to Hope International by scores of 22-25 and 23-25, Westmont Volleyball rallied to claim the next three sets (25-22, 25-18, 15-3) and earn a Golden State Athletic Conference victory on Tuesday night in Murchison Gymnasium. Alison Sharp led all hitters with a career-high 26 kills and a .362 attack percentage. She made just five hitting errors in 58 total attempts.
“I just wanted to prove that we could come out and still win games,” said Sharp of her performance. “We’ve been in a slump, and I wanted to leave every ounce of myself on the court today.”
“We knew this was going to be a tough match,” said Westmont Head Coach Jim Smoot. “Hope International went five sets with Vanguard last week. They are drastically improved. Their coaching staff has done a great job.”
The Warriors struggled early, making 14 of their 23 hitting errors in the first two sets.
“I think we pulled the game on Saturday into this game,” said sophomore setter Kailee Blair, speaking of a three-game sweep at #2 California Baptist. “We were still upset about the game. We had to get that out and after the second game we were good.”
Blair produced 31 assists in the match while fellow setter freshman Candace Adema tallied 29.
“Usually it is really discouraging to be down 2-0,” said Sharp. “But tonight all of us looked at each other and had a moment of clarity where we knew we were not going to let this team beat us. I think it helped us play better. It helped us get our act together and realize we needed to really bring it to beat this team.”
Smoot also saw something new in his team’s comeback performance.
“They allowed us to coach them more than we have (been able to) in past matches,” said the coach.
“One of our assistant coaches observed that he saw them maturing tonight by taking the information the coaching staff was sharing with them and applying it to the game.”
“We just really wanted to win,” said Blair. “We finally realized we needed to work hard to pull this off.”
The tide began to turn midway through the third set. Down 14-16, the Warriors tied the match with a kill by Katey Lowry (12 kills, .188 attack percentage) and a solo block by Blair. The Royals scored the next two points, but the Warriors hung around and eventually tied the score at 21-all on a kill by Sharp.
Westmont pulled ahead on an attack error by the Royals and then forced a timeout at 23-21 with another kill be Sharp.
“Alison played great,” said Smoot. “Tonight she started hitting some of the inside shoot sets off of transition instead of just the outside sets. That helped a lot. She used a lot of smart shots, tipping the ball and throwing off the defense, in addition to hitting the ball hard down the line.”
After the time out, Sharp and Katie Barton closed the roof on an attack by the Royals’ Christina Richards to make the score 24-21. Richards succeeded on her next attempt, making the score 24-22, but Stephanie Dunn stepped up and delivered one of her nine kills to give set number three to the Warriors.
In the fourth set, the score remained close until halfway through. A kill by Richards tied the game at 15, but the Warriors scored 10 of the next 13 points to cruise to their most comfortable win so far in the match.
The decisive fifth set proved to be a blow out. With the score 3-2 in favor of the Warriors, Blair served for nine straight points, giving the Warriors a 12-2 advantage.
“I was really excited and just trusted my team that after I served they would keep on playing the ball and win the point so I could serve again,” said Blair.
“Everyone was aggressive and we had the momentum,” said Sharp of the 10-0 run. “We were all playing united.”
Richards finally broke the Warriors’ scoring streak, but Lowry answered with a kill to make the score 13-3.
Beth Widicus added one of her 11 kills (.216 attack percentage) to give the Warriors match point at 14-3 before the match came to an end on an attack error by the Royals.
Westmont will return to action on Saturday when the Warriors host #4 Concordia in Murchison Gymnasium beginning at seven o’clock.
