SCIAC Championship: 5 things to know

THE MATCHUP

After securing the road win in the SCIAC Semifinals, the Panthers head to Roberts Pavilion in Claremont, Calif. to take on the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Athenas on Saturday at 4 p.m. The Athenas are ranked No. 3 in the nation in the latest AVCA poll with just one loss on the season. CMS took both matches from the Panthers this year although Chapman was the only SCIAC team to push CMS into a fifth set.

REMATCH

The 2021 SCIAC Championship match will be a rematch of the last SCIAC Championship match in 2019. The Panthers fell 3-0 to the Athenas in 2019 and just missed out an NCAA Tournament bid. Chapman is appearing in its third championship match overall but have been swept in both appearance in 2019 and 2012. CMS is playing in its eight championship match with eight consecutive appearances. The Athenas have won the last three consecutive SCIAC Tournaments. These two teams last meet in the Hutton Sports Center with Panthers going up 2-1 before CMS took the last two sets to stay undefeated in the SCIAC.

DYNAMIC SENIOR DUO

The Panthers' senior stars shined bright in the SCIAC semifinal, combining for 31 of Chapman's 45 kills. Jessi Lumsden collected 16 kills for the match-high and Sophie Srivastava's hot start led to a 15-kill night. Both recorded double-doubles as Lumsden had 12 digs and Srivastava had 17 assists. Srivastava – the 2021 SCIAC Player of the Year – and Lumsden – a three-time All-SCIAC First Teamer – along with fellow senior Erika Wiles have raised the bar for Chapman volleyball with a SCIAC Tournament appearance every year and two championship match appearances. Lumsden became the first Panther volleyball player to earn three All-SCIAC First Team awards this season.

UP THE CAREER LIST FOR LUMSDEN

Lumsden is just a few kills away from moving up the career list for kills at Chapman. With 1,019 career kills in three years, Lumsden currently ranks sixth. With six more, she'll move up to fifth all-time. With eight more, she'll rank fourth all-time. Her 3.71 kills per set in her career ranks third all-time – just .01 behind Jill Felger.

SENSATIONAL SUD SERVES

Sophomore Chanel Sud recorded two service aces but was at the service line for every lengthy Panther run in the semifinal match. Sud served four consecutive points in the first set to put the Panthers up 6-2 early on. She served eight consecutive points in the second set for a 9-2 Panther lead. In the third set, it was Sud again at the service line when the Panthers took a big chunk out of the 18-12 deficit to make it 18-16. The Sagehens were never able to sideout on Sud's first serve and it was once again Sud serving when the final Sagehen attack sailed long to clinch the match for Chapman.

By Steven Olveda
Sports Information Director

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