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Box Score 2 Claremont, Calif. – The No. 11 Transylvania volleyball team commenced the fall 2021 season by immediately getting down to business, winning both of its matches over the California Lutheran Regals and the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens on Friday afternoon on the campus of Pomona-Pitzer Colleges.
Competing against two teams hailing from the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in the populous Pacific Coast Classic tournament, the Pioneers stormed to a three-set sweep of the Regals in their early morning match and answered back with a four-set win over the Sagehens in the second match of the day.
The Pioneers entered the season with their highest AVCA Top 25 ranking ever at 11th in the nation and displayed their might with a hard-fought 25-22, 25-21, 25-23 win over the Regals in the morning game in Southern California and followed up with a 15-25, 25-19, 25-15, 26-24 win over the Sagehens.
Transy staved off an upset bid by the Regals, erasing a 19-18 first set deficit by scoring five straight points. Madison Sweeney came up clutch with the final two kills of the set to give the Pioneers an early 1-0 match lead.
The Pioneers rode the momentum of their stirring set one finish to power to a 6-0 lead in set two before the Regals fired back with eight unanswered points, claiming a two-point lead.
The Pioneers' frontline sparked another big run as Transy scored seven unanswered on the way to a 17-11 advantage. Transylvania surged to a 24-14 lead before one final run by the Regals, but the Pioneers used a series of spirited digs to find their 25th point and close out the second set, 25-21.
The Pioneers raced out to another significant lead in the third set, grabbing a 7-2 advantage following a Kaetlin Ethington kill from the right side. The Regals showed their resilience, carving away at a 12-6 Transy lead to tie up the third set at 12-all. The third set see-sawed before Cal Lutheran achieved a 22-21 advantage. The Pioneers tied up the game as a Regal service missed long and Cate Scheper delivered a crushing kill. The Regals forced another tie at 23-23 after a Pioneer service error, but Scheper dropped down another hammer and the Pioneers foiled California Lutheran's final return to capture the sweep.
Pomona-Pitzer came out swinging in the second match of the day, handing the Pioneers a 25-15 setback in the first set. But trailing 12-10 in the second set, the Pioneers found their footing that would carry them for the rest of the afternoon as the Kentucky visitors scored five of the next six points, punctuated by a Kayden Holcomb ace for a 15-13 lead. The Pioneers closed the second set, 25-19 to knot up the match at 1-1.
Transylvania was off and running, giving the Sagehens a taste of their own medicine with a 25-15 victory in the third set behind an efficient .364 attacking percentage. The Pioneers battled tightly again with the Sagehens in the fourth set before Pomona-Pitzer assumed a towering 23-19 lead. Transylvania signed off on the day with a resilient exhibition, scoring seven of the final eight points in the set to shockingly seize the match.
The Pioneers play their final two matches in Southern California tomorrow, taking on Eastern Nazarene at 12:30 p.m. Eastern time and another SCIAC foe in Whittier at 2:00 p.m.
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