ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Cal Lutheran women's volleyball put up a tough fight, but the Regals were outlasted by the Trinity (Texas) Tigers, 3-1, on Friday afternoon at the East to West Battle which was hosted by Washington University in St. Louis. The scores of the match were 16-25, 25-19, 12-25, 20-25.
The match was the first of three for the Regals at the East to West Battle, that includes four ranked teams and another receiving votes. The loss snapped a four-game winning streak and Cal Lutheran is now three games over .500 at 6-3.
Maci Haddad led the attack and notched eight kills while hitting with a .357 percentage. The rest of the attacks were balanced as Morgan Given swatted down six and Sarah Hein, Samantha Landrum and Christina Williams all had five more. Jenna Jones recorded her first collegiate double-double and recorded a team-high 14 digs, also a season-high, and added 11 assists.
Jones was also impressive serving and had three aces, while Jennifer Kent dished out 22 assists. Defensively, Haddad and Landrum both tallied three block assists and Carly Rose Howard and Hein tallied 12 and 11 digs, respectively.
The match was won at the net as the Bears recorded 13 total team blocks to the Regals five. Cal Lutheran also hit with a .031 percentage while WashU hit .185.
After the Bears took the first set 25-16, the Regals looked to tie it up in the second and show that they could hang with the top teams in the nation. With the score tied at 3, the Regals scored six of the next seven points, including five in a row, to take a 9-4 lead. The Bears fought back and tied the set at 11, but the Regals fired back with another run.
CLU scored nine straight points and were up big, 20-11. Haddad tallied two kills, combined with Landrum for three block assists and Jones served back-to-back aces. The Regals held the lead the rest of the match and won 25-19 to tie the match at 1-1.
The Bears turned the match around in the third set and jumped out to an early 10-5 lead. It allowed them to coast to a 25-12 win. CLU looked to force the match to five sets as the teams took to the court in the fourth. The Regals, again, found themselves down early, but fought through the adversity and tied the match at 9. However, WashU scored four straight points to give them the breathing room they needed. The Bears won the fourth set 25-20 and the match 3-1.
The Regals continue the East to West Battle on Saturday with more top-notch competition. Cal Lutheran takes on the No. 1 team in the country, Emory, at 10:15 a.m. PST before facing WashU at 2:45 p.m.
Box Score: No. 11 TU 3, CLU 1
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Release by Ryan Jorgenson, Sports Information Director