CLAREMONT, Calif.— The Cal Lutheran women's volleyball team took Juniata College the distance, but the Eagles took down the Regals 3-2 (19-25, 25-23, 20-25, 25-21, 18-20) Saturday afternoon inside Roberts Pavilion.
The two-day tournament was hosted by Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. Six teams were involved and five were ranked in the top-25.
Freshman middle blocker Maci Haddad swatted down a career-high 15 kills and had a .367 hitting percentage. She was a force around the net with four block assists and added two digs.
Senior outside hitter Amanda Roberts recorded her fourth double-double of the season in kills and digs with 12 and 10, respectively. Freshman outside hitter Lauren Heller saw the her most game action to date and tallied the first double-digit kill match of her young career with 10. She added six digs and two services aces.
Senior setter Steph Rolfson moved the ball around and totaled 40 assists. She was one dig shy of a double-double. Her stat line also included two block assists, two kills and one service ace.
Junior libero Carly Rose Howard recorded a match-high 27 digs, just one shy of her career-high which she set earlier this year. She has double-digit digs in 10 of the 12 games. She has tallied 20-plus digs six times. Sarah Hein was next on the team with 14.
The first set of the match went to Juniata as they won 25-19. The Eagles then jumped out to a 15-10 lead in the second set. Kills from Heller, Haddad and Paris Dosch helped the Regals go on a run and the score was eventually tied at 18. With the score tied at 20, attack errors by Juniata and a service ace from Roberts put CLU up 24-20. Cal Lutheran tied up the match and won the second set 25-23.
Juniata took back the match lead as they won the third set 25-20. In the fourth set, the Eagles were up 10-9, before CLU scored on four straight attacks. Roberts accounted for three and Heller added one. With the score tied at 18, Cal Lutheran scored five straight points to take a 23-18 lead. Julia Trento recorded two service aces and Haddad and Heller recorded kills. The Regals won the fourth set 25-21 and forced a decisive fifth set.
In the fifth set, Juniata jumped out to a quick 7-3 lead. The Regals were quick to counter and tied the set at 7. Madison Karcich and Haddad recorded a kill and then Haddad combined with Roberts for a block. CLU then took a 13-9 lead after back-to-back service aces from Trento. The Regals couldn't close it out though as the Eagles fought back and won the set 20-18 and the match 3-2.
The East-West Challenge was the final tournament of 2018 for the Regals. Cal Lutheran (6-6) gets back into conference play and will host Redlands Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Gilbert Arena.
Box Score: JC 3, CLU 1
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Release by Ryan Jorgenson, Sports Information Director
