The No. 25 University of Redlands volleyball team suffered its first loss of the season last night when it was upended by the Tigers of Occidental College in this year's opening Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) match. The Maroon and Gray came up short in four sets, 21-25, 25-21, 22-25, 21-25.

Despite holding early leads in every set, the Bulldogs struggled to hold off an enthusiastic and persistent Tiger squad, who mustered impressive blocking and effective hitting.

Redlands gained a team-leading 14 kills from senior outside hitter Jackie Hamilton (Loma Linda, CA). She also provided 17 digs and two block assists. Senior middle blocker Megan Phillips (Vista, CA) racked up an impressive hitting percentage of .306 on 13 kills. Freshman setter Alisha Cornick (Hollister, CA) supplied 31 assists while senior libero Chelsea Arcaris (Vista, CA) came up with 31 digs from the back row.

Oxy looked to sophomore outside hitter Logan Boyer-Hayse (Boulder, CO) to lead the Tiger offense with a match-leading 26 kills. Freshman outside hitter Stephanie Gann (Tacoma, WA) backed her with 18 put-aways.

Redlands (9-1, 0-1 SCIAC) strives to rebound later this week as it faces a four-match tilt through Saturday night. On Thursday, the Bulldogs make their home debut of the season with a non-conference showdown against Chapman University at 7 p.m. Friday's matches include La Sierra University at 3 p.m. and Caltech at 7:30 p.m. Finally, Redlands wraps up a full week of competition on Saturday at 6 p.m. with a SCIAC battle at Pomona-Pitzer Colleges, which recently defeated La Verne on the road in five sets.