Westmont suffered a four-set loss at The Master’s (25-17, 21-25, 25-27, 22-25) on Saturday night.
Despite the loss, Westmont (17-4 overall, 8-2 GSAC) remains in first place, a half-game ahead of Hope International and Menlo, who are both 8-3 in conference play.
“I told the women in the locker room, ‘We still have a half-game lead, but we’ve got to get better at closing out games,’” said Westmont head coach Ruth McGolpin. “There needs to be some self-reflection. We need to reflect on how we can get better. There is no doubt that the effort was there, but we just weren’t executing.”
Westmont went on a 6-0 run to take a 17-10 advantage in the first set and then later went on a 5-0 run to extend its lead to 22-12.
Westmont’s momentum ended there, as The Master’s won the final three sets.
“They had a fun and noisy crowd, but we allowed them to get excited,” said McGolpin.
In the second set, the Mustangs went ahead 6-0 before Westmont got on the board.
“They switched their lineup and we started off sluggishly in set two,” said McGolpin.
The Warriors came back to within 11-12, but The Master’s won 12 of the next 17 points to take a 24-16 lead. Westmont went on a 5-0 run to make the score 24-21, but it was too little too late for the visitors as the Mustangs took the second set, 25-21.
“They got a 6-0 lead on us and then we built it back to a one-point differential, but they bounced ahead again which killed us,” said McGolpin.
Much like in the first set, Westmont started quickly in set three to take a 4-0 lead. The Master’s responded by winning the next five points to take a one-point advantage. The two teams battled back and forth until Westmont took a 15-12 lead. Then a 5-0 run by the home side put the Mustangs ahead by two. The Master’s went up 24-22, but Westmont saved two set points to tie it up, 24-24. A Cassidy Rea kill gave the Warriors set point, but the Mustangs rallied off the next three points to win the set 27-25 and take a 2-1 lead.
“Credit to Keelyn, she served tough on three, four balls in a row to get us to that point,” said McGolpin. “We had an opportunity to shut the door with a one-point lead and had a missed serve, which opened the door for them.”
The Master’s took an early 3-0 lead in the fourth set before Westmont battled back to tie. With the score tied 11-11, the Mustangs scored four points in a row on their way to putting the Warriors on the brink, 24-18. The Warriors then rallied off four consecutive points themselves, but their comeback attempt fell short, as The Master’s took the set and the match, 25-22.
Rea (15) and Hali Galloway (11) led the Warriors in kills, while Keelyn Kistner recorded 24 assists to lead the team. Lauren Friis tallied 20 digs and Cheney added 17. Lexi Malone led with eight blocks while Patty Kerman had six.