Volleyball Notches Second Straight Win

WHITTIER, Calif.(Oct. 4, 2008) – Occidental brought the momentum that they established last night in their first conference win of the season over Caltech to the Graham Athletic Center tonight as the Tigers defeated the Whittier College Poets 3-1 for their second win in as many nights.

Occidental dropped the first game 25-15 before winning in straight sets 25-19, 25-17 and 25-18 to tie up the victory.

Game three was the most solid for both sides as the Tigers hit a cumulative .303 while the Poets finished hitting .382.

For the second match in a row freshman Gwynne Davis led the Tigers with 10 kills while classmate Kaitlin McAndrews was one behind with nine. Jamie Nikami supplied a match-high 29 assists in the winning effort.

Oxy players combined for seven service aces with two coming from Kathryn Bockmon, Kate Meyer and Nyki Dedic with Ginger Grimes finishing off the aces.

Grimes was also effective defensively with a match-high 23 digs, followed by Bockmon with 17, Nikami with 12 and Meyer with 10 to round out those players with double figures.

On the front line Ashley Rosenbaum and McAndrews each recorded two solo blocks adding three and one block assists, respectively. Occidental finished with 8.0 total team blocks to the Poets 1.0.

Whittierstandout Keisha O’Brien led all players with 18 kills, adding 22 digs for a strong double-double performance. Sara Araiza was one behind Nikami with 28 assists

The Tigers improve to 3-5 overall, 2-4 in SCIAC play.

Oxy will be back on the court Tuesday evening as they travel to Claremont to take on the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Athenas at 7:30 p.m.