CLAREMONT, Cal. – The #14 Carthage College women's volleyball team started the 2018 season on a sour note Friday evening on the west coast as the Lady Reds dropped their opening matches at the Pacific Coast Classic to Cal Lutheran University and #1 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.
Cal Lutheran 3, #14 Carthage 1
The Lady Reds opened the season with a strong opening set against Cal Lu, hitting .276 and holding the Regals to .000, to take the opener 25-18. However, Cal Lu returned the favor with a 25-18 second set win of their own to even the match at 1-1.
Carthage then led for the early part of the third set but eventually Cal Lu evened the score at 17-17 and were looking at taking a 2-1 lead up 24-23 late. The Lady Reds continued to battle and had their chances, as Carthage forced seven set-points but were unable to get the point needed. Cal Lu eventually took the third in a 34-32 marathon. Then in the fourth, the Lady Reds once again found themselves on the short end of extra points after taking an early 8-4 lead, which was erased following a 7-1 run by the Regents to take the lead. The Regents used another late run to take a 23-19 lead late, but the Lady Reds battled back to tie the game at 24-24 before CLU snagged the next two points for the win.
As a team, the Lady Reds hit .188 to the Regents .232 and had just 51 kills versus Cal Lu's 61. Both teams committed 23 attack errors in the match.
Individually,
Megan Behrendt led the Lady Reds with 14 kills and a career-high six service aces. In her Carthage debut,
Nicole Acton led Carthage with six blocks and libero
Sarah Grabowski had 20 digs in her first start. Three other Lady Reds also registered double-digits in digs as
Ellie LeCount had 14,
Shannon Kebisek had 12 and Behrendt had 10.
#1 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 3, #14 Carthage 2
In the second match of the evening, the Lady Reds dropped a heartbreaker, falling in five sets after taking a 2-0 lead against the #1 Athenas of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.
While neither team played great, the Lady Reds took advantage of CMS miscues in the first set to take the early dominant lead despite hitting just .178 and .078 to the Athenas' .143 and .080.
The defending national champions turned things around from there as they outhit the Lady Reds the rest of the way including fourth and fifth sets of .517 and .429 respectively, giving them a .230 team percentage in the come from behind, while Carthage struggled with hitting percentages of .159, .147 and .125 down the stretch.
Despite the poor hitting the Lady Reds still had a chance in the fifth set after taking a 7-4 lead. Unfortunately, CMS closed the match on a 8-2 run to down Carthage in the fifth, 15-9.
Behrendt once again led the Lady Reds with 16 kills, while
Katie Laio registered 24 blocks.
Ellie LeCount paced Carthage with 41 assists and also led with a team and career-high 24 digs.
The Lady Reds will return to action in Claremont on Saturday with another tough test, as Carthage will open the day with #9 Southwestern University at 11:45 AM PST before closing out the weekend with Chapman University at 2:15 PM PST.
