Volleyball gets homespun victory over No. 20 Claremont
ORANGE, Calif. – The Chapman University volleyball team finally got to play in front of its home crowd on Friday night and it didn't disappoint. The Panthers handed visiting No. 20 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges its first loss of the season, rallying for a five-set victory (25-21, 23-25, 18-25, 25-23, 15-7) in their home and SCIAC openers at Hutton Center.
After losing the second and third sets, Chapman (8-5 overall, 1-0 SCIAC) had its back against the wall trailing 19-14 in the fourth. However, the Panthers rallied for five straight points and then pulled away for the win to even the match at two sets apiece. Junior MB Val Geiger led the comeback with six of her match- and career-high 26 kills in the set. Freshman OH Halle Erdahl clinched the set with the game-winner, one of her five kills.
With all the momentum, the Panthers jumped out to an 11-4 lead in the fifth set and cruised to a 15-7 win. Chapman carried its impressive home play over from last year having now won 15 of 17 at Hutton Center.
Chapman had jumped out to a 1-0 lead after winning the first set and then led the second set 19-15. But the lead slipped away as Claremont (9-1 overall, 1-1 SCIAC) came storming back to take the set 25-23 and then won the third with relative ease 25-18. Athenas' OHs Nicole Kerkhof and Audrey Breitwieser finished the match with 25 and 22 kills apiece to lead the CMS offense.
For Chapman, sophomore OH Michele Hammer tallied 17 kills and 17 digs, while senior S Corrine Ostrovsky earned 58 assists – her sixth match this season with at least 50 assists.
The Panthers return to action on Saturday night when they host the University of Redlands in another SCIAC match beginning at 6 p.m.
by Doug Aiken
Sports Information Director
Boxscore: http://www.chapmanathletics.com/sports/wvball/2013-14/boxscores/20130920_jm37.xml
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