With 20 kills from junior outside hitter Madison Serrano, #16 Westmont Volleyball improved its record to 7-0 with a 3-1 (21-25, 25-20, 25-21, 25-23) victory over Westminster (Utah) at the ASICS/Wyndham Labor Day Tournament in Irvine. The Griffins fell to 3-3 on the year.
Serrano posted an attack percentage of .268 while also contributing 18 digs and two blocks. Senior middle blocker Ciara Turner added another 10 kills to the Warrior total and led the team in attack percentage at .400.
The Griffins took the tightly contested first match when Alexis Aalona ended the set with back-to-back service aces. Aalona led Westminster’s attack, tallying 14 kills. Her 11 attack errors, however, resulted in a .071 attack percentage.
Jovana Sisovic contributed 13 kills to the Griffin’s offense and recorded an attack percentage of .323.
With the score tied at 12 in the second set, a kill by Sydney Striff won the serve for the Warriors. Serrano then went to the service line and helped the Warriors to six points before yielding the serve back to Westminster.
The Griffins narrowed the gap to four (21-17), before Westmont’s Marissa Fuerst delivered a kill to give her teammate Tessa Martin the serve. Martin, playing in her first match of the season after suffering an injury early on, served for two points to make it 24-17. The Griffins scored the next three points, but Westmont tied the match at one set apiece on a Westminster error.
The third set saw the Warriors jump out to an 8-3 lead before the Griffins scored on six of the next seven points; tying the set at nine-all. Still tied at 13, the Warriors got kills from Serrano, Turner, Thompson and Turner again to take a 17-13 advantage. Sarah McGough kept Westminster off balance from the service line during the Warrior run.
The Griffins battled back to within one when a block by Sisovic and Mayra Ramirez made the score 17-16, but that was as close as Westminster would get in the third set.
Down two sets to one, the Griffins turned a 10-10 tie in the fourth set into an 18-13 advantage. After a timeout called by Westmont head coach Patti Cook, Westminster committed errors on three of the next four serves; making the score 19-16.
Martin then served for five straight points – three the result of kills by Serrano – to give Westmont a 21-19 lead. A service error made it a one-point game (21-20) before setter Heidi Thompson and Serrano delivered back-to-back kills making it 23-20 in favor of the Warriors. Westminster then scored on a kill by Katie Vance to cut the lead to 23-21.
The final four points were all the results of errors – two by each team. Westmont’s final point came on a Westminster serve into the net.
The Warriors will continue tournament play tomorrow morning when they take on #25 Carroll of Montana (4-4) at eleven o’clock. Then at three o’clock, the Warriors will match up for the second time this season against William Jessup (1-4).
