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Regals Advance to SCIAC Finals with Sixth Straight Sweep
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - An eight kill, three
block effort by Regals outside hitter Kylie McLogan helped No. 15
Cal Lutheran earn a spot in Saturday's SCIAC Post-Season Tournament
Final with its 25-15, 25-10, 25-23 win Thursday night against
Whittier.
Box Score: CLU 3,
WC 0 - F
In addition to McLogan, middle blocker Shannon
Pearson and outside hitter Rachel Smith also finished with a
team-high eight kills each.
With their 3-0 victory over Whittier, the team's second in the
last week after defeating the Poets by an identical score on Oct.
28, the Regals have now earned three-set sweeps against their last
six opponents.
Recording three of her eight kills in the opening set, McLogan
helped turn Whittier's three-point lead into a one-point CLU
advantage.
A combination of Whittier attack errors and back-to-back service
aces by CLU setter Jackie Russell helped the Regals build their
lead to a 22-15 margin, forcing Whittier head coach Ali Oliver to
call a timeout in an effort to help her team regroup.
Once both teams returned to the court, Cal Lutheran soon took a
1-0 lead as the Regals forced Whittier to commit consecutive attack
errors to bring a quick end to the set.
Hitting .080 in the first set, Whittier finished with an even
lower percentage in the following set, as the Poets were able to
record only seven kills against six attack errors to finish with a
.037 mark.
Committing only two attack errors of its own throughout the second
set, two Cal Lutheran runs helped the Regals take a commanding 2-0
lead over the Poets.
Winning six straight points to turn a 6-6 tie into a 12-6 lead,
Cal Lutheran ended the set in a similar manner as the final seven
points were all earned by the Regals during Russell's serve.
Unlike the first two sets when Cal Lutheran was able to build an
early and sizable lead, the Regals had to wait until the latter
moments of the third set before pulling away from the Poets.
Recording the last of her three solo blocks to give CLU its first
match point opportunity leading 24-22, McLogan's final kill of the
night helped the Regals officially earn their spot in this
weekend's SCIAC final, and extend the team's win streak against
Whittier to 17 matches.
In the other semifinal match, No. 2 Occidental defeated No. 3
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 3-0 to claim its spot in the SCIAC
finals.
As the tournament's top-seeded team, No. 15 Cal Lutheran (25-5)
will now have an opportunity to successfully defend its SCIAC
Tournament championship against Occidental (20-8) in Saturday's 6
p.m. final at Gilbert Arena.
With each team defeating the other at home by matching 3-1, the
winner of Saturday's rubber match between Cal Lutheran and
Occidental will earn an automatic bid to this year's NCAA
tournament.
