CMS Volleyball Drops Five-Set Thriller to WashU on First Day of East-West Classic

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Jenna Holmes had 20 kills and Brenna Bell matched her career high with 18 but it wasn't quite enough as the No. 2 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps volleyball team fell 3-2 to No. 14 Washington University on Friday afternoon on the first day of the East-West Classic at Roberts Pavilion.

With the loss, CMS falls to 3-1 on the season, while WashU improves to 5-1. It was only the second regular season loss that the Athenas have suffered in the last three seasons (post-pandemic), after dropping one regular season match in 2021 (to Calvin) and going undefeated in the regular season a year ago.

Set scores were 25-21, 16-25, 22-25, 25-22, 15-12 in favor of WashU, which trailed 13-7 in the fourth set, but came back to win 25-22 and force a fifth. Georgia McGovern was one kill shy of a triple-double for the second time already this season, finishing with 52 assists, 11 digs, and nine kills in 16 attempts with no errors.  

A 6-0 run for the Bears turned a 16-13 deficit into a 19-16 lead. Bell then started a 3-0 run, capped off by a Brooke McKee kill, that tied it 19-19, but WashU scored the next two points. McGovern had a kill to make it 22-21, and another to fight off a set point and make the score 24-22, but Leah Oyewole was able to finish the set with a kill and force it to five. 

A 3-0 WashU run turned a 5-5 score into an 8-5 lead, but Bell put down two straight kills to close it to 8-7. After WashU scored the next two points, McKee and Audrey Sawyer combined on two straight blocks, and McKee had a kill to tie it up at 10-10. Sawyer answered a WashU point with a kill to tie it 11-11, and a bad set put the Athenas in front 12-11, but the Bears closed out with four points in a row to get the dramatic win, all on kills from Lucy Davis, who finished with 15.

Dede Carranza led the CMS defense with 24 digs, while adding four service aces. McKee finished with 12 kills, and Sawyer had seven kills and four blocks. 

CMS will be back in action tomorrow when it takes on Trinity at 11:30 a.m., which is also coming off a five-set loss to Tufts in the evening session. Trinity defeated Cal Lutheran in five sets in the first match of the day. The Athenas will then close out at 6 p.m. against Johns Hopkins.