No. 7 Westmont faced off against two NAIA top-10 women’s volleyball teams on the second day of their season and came away with a pair of hard-fought victories, beating ninth-ranked Corban of Ore. in a marthon five-set match (25-18, 34-32, 24-26, 12-25, 15-13) and knocking off No. 2 Dordt of Iowa, 3-1 (25-15, 25-19, 15-25, 26-24) on Thursday at the Summer Slam Tournament in Fullerton.
“Defeating two top-10 opponents shows how much talent and potential this team has,” said Westmont head coach Patti Cook. “I am really proud of the way we played, even more so in the second match where we played a really steady game. What was most encouraging to me was that we continued to improve throughout the tournament. Our last match against Dordt was the most composed of the entire tournament.”
Westmont was trailing 8-5 in the fifth set when the teams switched sides. That is when the tide began to turn. Outside hitter Taylor Beckman recorded a kill and Cassidy Rea and Emma Harrah produced a block before freshman outside hitter Hali Galloway’s kill tied the score at eight.
Samantha Neely and Libby Dahlberg closed the net with a block, tying the score at 13. Beckman then slammed home a kill to give Westmont match point and its first lead of the set since the first rally. The match finally ended on a Corban attack error that gave Westmont its second win of the young season.
Rea lead the Warrior attack with 20 kills and a .432 attack percentage. Neely tallied 17 kills and an attack percentage of .261. Camryn Kaina notched 28 assists while Buffham added 27 assists and 13 digs. Lindsay Paulo tallied 18 digs to lead the team.
“Our right sides took over the game in the first match,” express Cook. They were on fire and unstoppable. Sam was hitting as well as I’ve ever seen her hit and Cassidy was a beast.”
Four Warriors recorded double-digit kills in the win against Dordt, led by Neely with 13 (.300 attack percentage). Rea tallied 12 and notched a .355 attack percentage. Outside hitters Galloway and Beckman (.313 attack percentage) each contributed 11 kills. Beckman and Paulo each produced 20 digs. Buffham tallied 28 assists and Kaina had 25.
The Warriors (3-1) will play their home opener on Monday afternoon at 4 p.m. against UC Merced.