Senior outside hitter Alison Sharp led all players with 25 kills while freshman middle blocker Ciara Turner added 17 more as Westmont Women’s Volleyball (9-11, 3-8 GSAC) took #13 Azusa Pacific to the limit in Tuesday’s Golden State Athletic Conference match.
Westmont won the first set 25-21 before surrendering the next two sets 25-20 and 25-23. In the fourth set, the Warriors rallied to produce a 27-25 victory and force a fifth set. Despite rallying to take an 11-10 lead, Westmont lost the final set 15-12.
“We had moments of brilliance and moments of tuning out,” said Westmont head coach Jim Smoot after the game. “We get into situations where we needed to do something tactically and we failed to do that. As a result we don’t take advantage of our opponent’s weakness and we played into their strengths. I felt like that happened at the end of the fifth game. In the fifth game, Azusa only hit .077, and we lost to them. We had the chance, we just didn’t grasp it.”
The Warriors had a strong blocking game, posting a total of 13 blocks including seven block assists by Turner and five by Alexandria Wilson. Sharp and Kayta Goyich added another four each.
“Alison played really well,” said Smoot. “She was taking smart shots and tooling the block. Alison gave an example of doing what needs to be done, even when she is not comfortable with it. She likes to stay outside and hit fours. Today she was coming in and hitting 3s and 2s and Xs. That moved the block around and opened up opportunities for her to score.”
The Warriors will return to action on Saturday evening when they host #6 California Baptist (21-2, 8-2 GSAC). First serve is at seven o’clock.
