In its last home match of the season, the University of Redlands women's volleyball team honored six seniors before the first serve against La Verne University. The Leopards, who are fighting for a spot in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) tournament, took the match in three (25-23, 25-11, 25-17), despite the Bulldogs starting strong.
Junior middle blocker Hannah Lanyon (San Diego, CA) led the Bulldogs (8-18, 5-10 SCIAC) with nine kills on the night. Over half of her kills came in the first set alone as Lanyon was a perfect 5-for-5 on her attacking. Sophomore outside hitter Paige Davidson (Spanaway, WA) followed with six kills and led Redlands with 17 digs.
Both Bulldog setters finished with double-digit assists. Sophomore setter Tati Luevano (San Pablo, CA) dished out 14, while senior setter Emily Marty (San Diego, CA) added 13.
Redlands came out strong in the first set and took the first significant lead, 12-8, after scoring three-straight points. La Verne gave the Bulldogs the first point in the run with an error, sending Davidson to the line where she served up her first of two aces on the night. Senior outside hitter Christina Casey (Sherwood, OR) followed with a kill to force a Leopard timeout.
The Bulldogs kept pushing and extended their lead to six points, 17-11, fueled by back-to-back kills from Lanyon and Davidson.
La Verne turned things around, however, and tied the set up at 20-20. Intensity built as both teams wanted to end the set victorious, but the Leopards grabbed the 25-23 victory to take a one-set advantage.
The visitors carried that momentum over into the second, taking the set 25-11.
Redlands looked to shake it off and scored the first two points off a kill from Olson and another ace from Davidson.
Things remained close until La Verne strung together six consecutive points to jump in front 14-7.
The Bulldogs responded well and went on a 6-1 run of their own to pull within two, 15-13. With junior libero Ally Busch (Long Beach, CA) at the service line, she served up back-to-back aces to fuel the scoring spree, which also saw Lanyon hammer down a kill and team up with sophomore outside hitter Natalie Starlin (Las Vegas, NV) for a block.
La Verne called a timeout, but Redlands kept pushing and evened the score at 16-16.
Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to swing momentum in the Bulldogs' favor as the Leopards closed out the third on a 9-1 run to take the set 25-17 and win the match.
Redlands closes out the 2019 campaign Saturday night at Cal Lutheran University with a 6 p.m. start.
