On Friday night, the University of Redlands volleyball team returned to the friendly confines of Currier Gym for the first time in two weeks. Despite the supportive crowd, the Bulldogs came up short in four sets against the University of La Verne, falling by scores of 21-25, 26-28, 25-13, 16-25.
Redlands held a lead in each of the opening two sets, but the Leopards rallied back late in both stanzas to eventually pull out the tight wins.
Nonetheless, the Bulldogs refused to go down without a fight and came out firing in the third frame. The Maroon and Gray nabbed an early 5-1 advantage with senior defensive specialist Brittney Overgaag (Palm Desert, CA) at the service line. She uncorked a pair of aces during this stretch and went on to record three in the match.
Although La Verne cut the deficit to one at 4-5, the Bulldogs quickly responded with another sizeable run, making it 11-5. Senior outside hitter Morgan Buckner (San Rafael, CA) led the onslaught by knocking down four of her team-leading 18 kills for the night.
The Leopards ran into a streak of errors, forcing their coach to call a timeout with Redlands leading by a score of 15-7.
From here the teams traded punches, but the Bulldogs' advantage was never in question, as they cruised to an impressive 25-13 triumph.
During this set, the Maroon and Gray's offense amassed a .458 hitting percentage without a single error.
Unfortunately, the momentum stopped there, as La Verne answered right back in the fourth set by pulling away with an early 11-4 lead.
Buckner led the Maroon and Gray with 18 kills to go along with a solid hitting percentage of .310. She also provided 10 digs and two block assists on defense.
Freshman setter Ellie McLeod (Redlands, CA) distributed the ball well with 22 assists in three sets of action. She also put away six kills and provided 10 digs. Sophomore libero Karly Burningham (Sonoma, CA) came up with 12 digs for the Bulldogs.
La Verne (5-12, 2-4 SCIAC) looked to sophomore outside hitter Brittany Yaxley (Glendora, CA) to spearhead the attack with 25 kills. Sophomore outside hitter Ashlyn Cross (Chandler, AZ) and junior right-side hitter Nysa Allen (Haleiwa, HI) supplied 12 and 10, respectively.
Redlands (5-7, 2-3 SCIAC) returns to action on Tues., Oct. 1, when it hosts fifth-ranked Cal Lutheran University at 7:30 p.m. in Currier Gym.
