California Lutheran University’s Women’s Volleyball team claimed victory in a 3-0 shutout against the University of Texas-Dallas in the final game of the Cal Lu Fornia Invitational. The win brought the Regals’ record to 1-2 in the tournament and 2-8 for the season.
“This is probably the best offensive performance we’ve had,” Head Women’s Volleyball Coach Kellee Roesel said. “It’s just about staying consistent. Once we get to 20 we need to be able to close it out, and we’ve kinda struggled with that. We’ll make sure we do some pressure drills with that, and we just need to keep believing.”
Cal Lutheran began the Cal Lu Fornia Invitational against the Texas Lutheran University Bulldogs with a 3-0 loss despite scoring 20-plus points in every set. According to CLUSports.com, Senior Libero Alysha Buffini set a career-high total of 27 digs against the Bulldogs.
On day two of the invitational, the Regals faced off against the University of St. Thomas Celts in Cal Lutheran’s first of two games. Although the Regals established a lead at the beginning of the first set, the Celts pushed back to win the first and second sets 25-23, and 25-10, respectively.
The Regals managed to make a late comeback in the third set, winning 32-30 in their longest set of the tournament. However, Cal Lutheran was unable to capitalize on their efforts as the Celts took the fourth set and the match for a 3-1 victory over the home team.
In the final game of the tournament, the Regals defeated the University of Texas-Dallas Comets in a 3-0 sweep. The Regals established an early lead in the first set and took it with a score of 25-18.
“Coach told me to hit the living daylights out of the ball, and I just turned off my brain and did it,” Senior Outside Hitter Sadie Peete said. “The whole theme of this season has been to turn your brain off. Just don’t think about volleyball for a minute, get yourself right, and when it’s time to think about volleyball, we’re thinking about volleyball.”
In the second set, the Regals came back from 12-17 to win it 25-21, with Senior Outside Hitter Amy Buffini securing the set for the Regals. The Regals took the third set with the same scoreline to wrap up a 3-0 victory against the Comets.
“We did come off a couple losses, so we wanted to keep it light and encouraging,” Amy Buffini said. “Obviously, we were intentional going into this game, but we didn’t want to be too down on ourselves.”
Peete and Amy Buffini recorded a total of 14 and 10 kills respectively against the Comets. Amy Buffini also led the team in digs, with 18, earning double digits in both total kills and digs, achieving what is known as a double-double.
“We just really dialed in on our passing in this game, and we were able to set the middles and the right sides which helped open up the block for the outside a lot more,” Amy Buffini said.
In addition to Amy Buffini’s double-double, Senior Setter Tess Holbert recorded a total of 37 assists.
“I thought the vast majority of their swings were really smart. It wasn’t necessarily about power as much as it was about placement,” Roesel said. “I thought they did a pretty good job of that and I thought Tess probably set her best game of the preseason tonight when we needed it.”
Roesel said that the Regals are continuing to work on their ball control and offense.
“It’s taken us a little bit of time, but there’s moments of greatness and we see how well we can work together,” Peete said. “Just continuing to build that trust when we work together, it’s a beautiful thing.”
The Regals will face the University of Redlands on Tuesday, Sept. 19 in their first Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game of the season.
