Westmont Volleyball took care of business on their Saturday, as the Warriors swept the Hawaii Pacific Sharks in Santa Barbara.
The good vibes began moments before the match when the club honored both Phoebe Minch and Jessie Terlizzi, and the good vibes kept rolling as Westmont took all three sets to claim the match.
“Both of those women have been staples of this team since they got here,” Westmont head coach Ruth McGolpin said. “They’ve been integral both on and off the floor, and they will continue to be over the last few weeks of their careers here.”
In the first set, the two sides played a tight contest as the game entered double-digits, but a service ace from Taylor Distelberg gave the Warriors a 15-10 lead and led to HPU’s first timeout.
The bleeding did not stop following the pause, as Distelberg tallied one more ace before the Sharks could find their footing.
HPU’s second timeout came following a kill from Sara Kruger when it was 21-13, and minutes later, Terlizzi’s second kill of the game capped off a 25-17 first-set win.
In set two both teams traded five-point runs early, and when the dust settled, the game was tied 8-8. Westmont then began to take over, when a kill from Minch forced a Sharks timeout with the team leading 12-8.
Westmont did not let up one bit, with a Terlizzi kill later on stretching the lead to double-digits at 19-9.
Eventually, a kill from Terlizzi pushed Westmont’s total to 24, and an attacking error by HPU finished off a 25-12 win in set two.
More of the same followed to begin set three, with an ace from Minch pushing Westmont’s lead to 7-3, and a kill from Terlizzi pushing the score to 9-4.
The Sharks did not elect to call an early timeout, and the lead only continued to go with a block from Distelberg making it 13-6.
Finally, when the Warriors led 15-8, the Sharks called timeout to catch a breather. Later on, a block by Alexis Dennick and Krueger pushed Westmont’s lead to 20-10, with the finish line in sight.
In the end, an attacking error by HPU capped off a 25-14 win and allowed Westmont to finish off the clean sweep.
“We had an amazing offensive night,” McGolpin said. “As a team, we hit .348, and that’s probably as good as it’s been any night all season. Our seniors were steady, and then Sara Krueger was back where she was the other night, just crushing balls.
“We were steady, and we didn’t make a lot of mistakes, while we forced them to make a lot of mistakes. From the beginning to the end, we were on it today.”
The Warriors return to the court on Monday night when they travel to La Mirada for a 7:00 p.m. game against Biola. Links to live coverage are available on the Westmont Athletics website.