Westmont volleyball posted a comfortable victory on Tuesday night in Murchison Gymnasium as the Warriors swept The Master’s 25-16, 25-17, 25-14 in Golden State Athletic Conference action. Westmont improved its overall record to 12-7 and its conference record to 3-6.
“It was a really fun game to play,” said junior outside hitter Alison Sharp. “It was good to come out and play a game and be confident. We were playing really well.”
The Warriors jumped out to an early lead in all three sets and did not allow the Mustangs (9-10, 1-8 GSAC) to catch up. After the first game, head coach Jim Smoot began to mix up his lineup.
“I was really pleased with our second and third game,” said the coach. “We were able to put in some people who don’t usually start and they actually outperformed our usual starting six. We had a much better attack percentage in our second and third game. I thought Kristen Schroeder did a good job passing when she went in as the libero in the third game.”
After hitting .209 in the first game, Westmont posted an attack percentage of .276 in the second game and .410 in the third.
Senior right side hitter Stephanie Dunn led the Warriors with 11 kills and a .500 attack percentage. Senior middle block Katey Lowry added 8 kills and a .553 attack percentage while Sharp notched six kills and a .400 attack percentage. Neither Lowry nor Sharp committed an attack error during the match.
“We focused on maintaining a high intensity level and not having any big dips,” said Smoot. “That is important to us. A message I want to get across to the team is that if they do the blocking the same way we were tonight against everybody we play and attack the same way, we are going to be successful. You don’t have to change those things. We just need to maintain our techniques, have faith in them and realize that if the ball does get around us we have some good diggers back there.”
Senior libero Erin Dohm posted 10 digs for the Warriors while Sharp and sophomore Stacey Braceros each added nine. Braceros also contributed to the Warrior cause from the service line.
“I thought Stacey Braceros’ serving was excellent tonight,” said her coach. “She had two aces, but her serves also gave them a lot of trouble.”
Coach Smoot was also pleased with his team’s blocking effort.
“Eight blocks in three games is a lot of blocks,” said Smoot. “We also blocked a lot of balls that they brought up. I thought our blocking looked solid.”
Next up for the Warriors is a home match on Saturday against top-ranked Fresno Pacific (18-0, 8-0 GSAC). First serve is scheduled for two o’clock in Murchison Gymnasium.
“Fresno is a good team,” noted Sharp. “It will be fun to play them and we are going to give them a run for their money.”
