Hawks fall to Warriors in four

Special to EastCountySports.com

SANTA CLARITA – In the last leg of the road trip, the San Diego Christian volleyball team couldn’t complete a comeback falling to No. 16 Westmont College 3-1 (25-19, 25-20, 24-26, 25-19).

With the loss, the Hawks fall to an even 11-11 overall and 3-9 in GSAC play. The Warriors improve to 17-5 on the season and 9-3 in conference.

In Set 1, SDC and Westmont traded points for the first 16 points in the game. Alli Beezer notched a kill to tie the game at 8-8. The Warriors took the lead at 9-8 and didn’t look back growing their lead by as much as eight in the set.

Ashlyn Riding‘s service ace in Set 2 gave the Hawks an early 2-1 lead. SDC led 4-2 before Westmont went on a 5-0 run to take the lead for good in the set. A block by Molly Witzmann and Riding brought the deficit to four at 24-20 but a kill by Sydney Striff clinched the set for the Warriors.

After the early 5-5 tie in Set 3, the Hawks took control for the majority of the set en route to their set win of the match. Back to back kills from Juliana Gutknecht gave SDC an 8-5 lead. A kill from Alexa Lambert gave the Hawks their biggest lead of the set at 15-11. But Westmont came crawling back and eventually tying the set at 23-23. Gutknecht’s kill gave SDC a short 24-23 lead before WC tied it at 24-24. A Bevan Haskell and Gutknecht block gave the Hawks the lead again at 25-24 and an attacking error sealed the set win for SDC.

Another seesaw battle found itself in Set 4. The last tie was at 8-8 before the Warriors took charge at reclaimed the advantage, leading the rest of the way.

Gutknecht tallied a team-high 11 kills. Witzmann and Beezer both had nine kills a piece with Riding recording 37 assists.

The Hawks are back on the road on Tuesday as they head to Phoenix to take on the Firestorm. Game time is scheduled for 3 p.m.