The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women’s volleyball team (25-3, 15-1 SCIAC) extended their winning streak to eight on Thursday with a hard-fought 3-1 victory over La Verne in the conference semifinal.
After CMS took the first set easily, the Leopards turned things around, winning the second set 25-23 to tie the match at one. The Athenas then rebounded in the third, winning 25-20, and pulling within one set of taking the match.
Up 24-22 in the fourth, CMS needed one more point to end the Leopards season, but couldn’t finish, surrendering three straight points. Suddenly, the Leopards were a point away from forcing a decisive fifth set.
La Verne had three chances to send it to the fifth, but CMS responded every time with kills from Jackie Jones CM ’22, Regan Dinovitz CM ’21 and Amanda Walker SC ’20. With the match tied at 27, CMS picked up a kill by Lucila Grinspan HM ’21, and then capped off the victory with a block by Melanie Moore CM ‘21, who picked up another match-ending point.
Cal Lutheran, the only conference team to defeat the Athenas in the regular season, will travel to Claremont for the SCIAC Championship game. The Regals and Athenas will face off at 6 p.m. Saturday.