Young Volleyball Looks to Improve Record
By Ezekiel Pfeifer
Sports Associate

The women’s volleyball team started last week 3-5 and finished 4-6, after beating La Sierra on Thursday and losing to La Verne on Friday. The Pomona-Pitzer squad turned in an outstanding performance against La Sierra on Thursday, winning three straight games to take the match, 30-17, 30-17, and 30-23. But the Hens struggled on Friday against nationally ranked La Verne, losing the match in consecutive games, 26-30, 21-30, and 24-30.

Both games last week were on the road, putting the pressure on the Sagehens to defeat the home team. The Sagehens met La Sierra with confidence to put away the win.

Head coach Valerie Cowan was happy with Thursday’s win, even though she knew that La Sierra was not in top condition.

“The win at La Sierra was a good one for us. They are a struggling team, but we were able to keep our focus and finish the match in three, as we should have.”

Friday’s game was a different story for the Sagehens, who lost to La Verne in three straight games. The games were close, lost by only four points in the first game and by six in the third game, but the Hens were not able to come through with a victory.

La Verne is nationally ranked and is third in the western region, according to the NCAA poll. As a result, the team was not as disappointed at the loss as they might have been otherwise.

“It was a really good game, and we played hard the whole time,” said outside hitter Katie Caughlin '07. “La Verne’s team is huge, too. They had multiple freshmen over six feet tall and that is tough to beat.”

Cowan was not discouraged by the loss to La Verne either; in fact, she took the results of the game to be encouraging and signs of a good season to come.

“I actually felt very good about our performance at number LaVerne. We played them very tough but weren't quite able to pull it off. We played a nice defensive game, with strong passing, but our offense didn't really come through for us. We know the things we need to work on and can look to improve in those areas and take care of business in our future matches. What I saw from our team against LaVerne was very encouraging, and I'm looking forward to a very competitive season.”

The loss to La Verne was the first conference game of the season for both teams, giving La Verne an early advantage over the Sagehens in SCIAC play. Overall, La Verne is 4-0 this season and plays Occidental on Tuesday.

This year’s Sagehen volleyball team is young--seven members of the player roster are freshman. The two seniors, middle hitter Renee Faulkner and outside hitter Elena Shih anchor the team, with juniors Jessica Rybka, Jeannie Kenmotsu, and Alysha Lascano making vital contributions as well.

The 4-6 Sagehens started the season in disappointing style, losing their first three matches to Hayward, Whitworth, and Puget Sound. The second two losses should not have come as too much of a disappointment, however, as both Whitworth and Puget Sound are ranked in the top four of the Western region. This losing streak sparked a recovery in the team however, as they won their next three matches against Lewis and Clark, Concordia, and UC Santa Cruz, evening their record to 3-3.

Since that point, the Sagehens have gone 1-3 to put them at 4-6 on the season. The Pomona-Pitzer team hopes to improve that record at Redlands on Tuesday, looking to come one game away from the .500 mark. Redlands’ volleyball team is 5-4 on the season, putting them fourth in the SCIAC conference, after playing only non-conference matches thus far.