The University of Redlands women's volleyball team headed to Pasadena on Tuesday night to take on Caltech in a Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) contest. Through a very intense, high-scoring match the Maroon and Gray ultimately pulled out the straight-set win (28-26, 33-31, 25-17).
Despite Caltech scoring the first couple of points in the first set, the Bulldogs came back in a huge way, going on a 10-1 run. In that span, senior outside hitter Christina Casey (Sherwood, OR) executed a nice kill while junior libero Ally Busch (Long Beach, CA) served up an ace.
Redlands maintained a four-point lead through much of the first just as senior setter Emily Marty (San Diego, CA) did as she dished out an ace to make it game-point at 24-20. Unfortunately, Caltech worked its way back to tie it at 24-24. But Redlands hitters stayed calm in their approach, and two kills apiece from senior right-side hitter Maloree Kupp (Sunnyside, WA) and Casey solidified the first set victory, 28-26.
The Maroon and Gray got off to a good start in set two, forcing Caltech to take a timeout following a kill from senior right-side hitter Megan Houston (Des Moines, WA) that made the score 10-5. However, after that both teams matched each other point-for-point, surpassing the 25-point mark yet again. With the score knotted at 31-31, sophomore outside hitter Paige Davidson (Spanaway, WA) blasted two consecutive kills from sophomore setter Tati Luevano (San Pablo, CA) that was followed by a Beaver error to cement Redlands', 33-31, second set win.
With a get-ahead, stay-ahead mentality, the Bulldogs rolled their momentum into the third set that saw an awesome .286 hitting percentage. Casey, Davidson, and senior middle blocker Sofia Olsson (Cupertino, CA) each had three kills in the 25-17 victory.
Davidson and Casey were money from the 10-foot line each recording double-digit kills with 13 and 10 respectively. Busch paced the defense with 24 digs while Davidson added 11.
The Bulldogs (3-12, 1-5 SCIAC) look to bring this energy home when they take on Pomona-Pitzer Colleges on Friday, October 4, at 4 p.m. in Currier Gym.