REDLANDS, Calif. – The University of Redlands Volleyball team picked up their first win of 2022 in impressive fashion sweeping Occidental College Saturday afternoon 25-10, 25-20, 25-21.
The last time the Maroon and Grey picked up a set in a match was September 24 when they lost 3-1 to Cal Lutheran. Saturday the Bulldogs picked up three taking out Occidental College, while moving to 1-11, 1-7 SCIAC.
Redlands put together their best match of the season from start to finish, while facing adversity in the second and third sets, finding themselves trailing in both, but finding a way to battle back to claim the victory.
Avery Aminoff (Alexandria, VA) and Katie Allbery (Spokane, WA) led the offense both finishing with six kills and combined for eight blocks. Aminoff hit .235 in her breakout performance on the season to go with five blocks, while Allbery posted a .385 hitting percentage with three assisted blocks up front.
Kiana Stradford (Mission Viejo, CA) added a five-kill afternoon, hitting .625 with another five blocks. First-year Paige Sugg (Federal Way, WA) followed with five kills as well with four digs and first year setter Ella Goettsche (Eastvale, CA) strung together a stat line of four kills, a .571 hitting percentage, nine assists, nine digs, and six service aces. Laural Pittman (Los Angeles, CA) had a stellar night in the backrow with 11 digs and first-year Lyric Waterman (Aurora, CO) added seven assists, an ace, and four digs.
The Bulldogs hit .195 as a team, a season high, which included a .318 clip in the first set. UR stormed out in front quickly with seven straight behind a strong serving performance from Maddy Schonauer (Bakersfield, CA). During the run Aminoff and Allbery posted kills and combined for a block. This set the tone for the rest of the set as Sugg and Aminoff would tally two more kills that stretched the lead to 11-2. Oxy fought back to get within ten at 18-8, but that's as close as they would get as the Maroon and Grey would win seven of the next nine points with Schonauer picking up an ace followed by kills from Goettsche and Stradford.
It was a back and forth grind in the early stages of the second set until Oxy would go in front 15-10 and then 20-13. But this didn't deter the Bulldogs who would rally winning the next twelve straight behind Goettsche who would put up four service aces during the run, which included the last two of the frame that put UR up 2-0. Allbery also provided a pair of kills up front and Bailey Hoblitzell (Elk Grove, CA) would connect on the outside.
The Bulldogs were forced to play from behind once again, this time seeing themselves trailing 13-11. But again they would show their tenacity winning six in a row that swung the momentum, putting them on top 17-13. Three of the points came via kills from Allbery, Sugg, and Aminoff and another was off the hand of Pittman who provided an ace.
Two points later UR added another 3-0 spurt with Stradford connecting in the middle, which moved the score to 20-15. Oxy tried to rally with five of the next six points to cut the deficit to one, but that's as close as they could get as the Maroon and Grey would pick-up the sweep with a final push of four points in the final five. This time they used three attacking errors, an ace from Stradford and a kill from Allbery to secure the win.
Redlands remains at home next week, Tuesday, October 11 when they host No. 1 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps inside Currier Gym beginning at 7:00pm.
