Regals Drop Five Game Match to Leopards

Volleyball loses to No. 5 La Verne to end regular season

Thursday, Nov. 1, 2007 10:39 pm

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - The California Lutheran University volleyball team dropped a five-game match against No. 5 La Verne on Thursday in Gilbert Arena. The Regals fell in a fifth game that the Leopards won 15-12. Despite winning game one and getting 24 kills from outside hitter Summer Plante-Newman the Regals were unable to hold on and give La Verne its first conference loss.

After trading the first four games it looked like CLU would knock off ULV, taking a 5-1 advantage in the final frame. However, the Leopards roared back with 9-0 run to take a 10-5 lead. The Regals down but not out managed another game five run to tie the game back up 11-11 before La Verne closed out the game and match on a 4-1 run.

The defeat dropped the Cal Lutheran final regular season record to 18-8 overall and 11-3 in SCIAC. La Verne improved to 26-6, 14-0 SCIAC. The game scores were 26-30, 30-28, 25-30, 30-23 and 15-12.

Plante-Newman collected her 24 kills on 62 attempts and added 15 digs and three aces. Setter Lindsey Benson dished out 55 assists and notched 13 digs. The junior added two block assists and an emphatic solo block that completed the victory in game one.

Freshman middle blocker Allison Kerr collected 20 kills on the night and posted a match high .409 hitting percentage. Fellow freshman Ashley Clark posted a match high 29 digs.

Brianna Gonzales led the La Verne offensive attack with 21 kills. Libero Katherine Randall impressed from the service line with seven aces and also tallied 28 digs. Emily James had 59 assists for the Leopards.

The teams hit nearly equally on the match with CLU posting a hitting percentage of .218 compared to ULV’s .217 mark.