Garnet Volleyball Drops Two on Day One of Cal Lutheran Fall Classic
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - Sophomore Kat Montemurro's explosive attack led the Garnet offense but wasn't enough as the Swarthmore College volleyball team (15-6, 5-1 CC) would drop its first two games on Friday in the California Lutheran Fall Classic with a heartbreaking five set loss to Chapman University and a three set loss to Occidental College.
Montemurro racked up 24 kills and two service aces on the day.
Montemurro led Swarthmore with 24 kills in two games.
Montemurro led Swat in game one with 14 kills and two aces while sophomore Allison Coleman would add 10 kills and 2 aces to pressure the Chapman defense. Freshman Danielle Sullivan added two more aces along with her nine kills.
Swat served up 12 service aces in the match.
Although very close, Swat would fight hard to win the first two sets of the match to put Chapman in a corner. The Garnet would get a 19-14 lead in the third set before the Panthers would begin its comeback.
After losing a tough third set, junior Hillary Santana and the Swarthmore defense would try to fend off the surging Panther offense but Santana's team leading 14 digs weren't enough as Chapman would take a close fourth set 25-23 and fifth set 15-5.
Junior Genny Pezzola would pick up 13 digs while Sullivan would record 10.
In its second game of the day, the Montemurro and the Garnet would take on a very tough Occidental Tigers squad. Montemurro would lead the attack again with 10 kills while Pezzola would add six more.
The Tigers would take the first two sets but Swat wasn't backing down in game three. After going down by five points Swat would fight back to tie up the game thanks to four consecutive blocks by freshmen Brone Lobichusky and Maggie Duszyk and Montemurro.
Swarthmore took Oxy to five extra points before falling 30-28.
Santana and Pezzola would both have another great defensive game for Swat posting 17 and 13 digs respectively. Junior Lisa Shang would contribute 10 digs.
The Garnet volleyball team resumes tournament play on Saturday October 16 when it faces off against Whittier College. Play is set to begin at 10:30 am.