Women’s Volleyball Leads Westcliff into a New Era

By BRANDON PETERSEN

The gym was on fire Thursday night at the Jordan Lawley Center, where the Westcliff women's volleyball team kicked off a new era of Warrior Athletics in hosting La Sierra.

The Golden Eagles took home a competitive match win in three sets, 25-20, 25-22, 25-21.

Not only is a vastly expanded Westcliff Athletic Department embarking on its first season in both NAIA and California Pacific Conference play in 2021, but Thursday was also the first time in nearly two years that the Warriors were finally playing for something.

"It felt like home," Westcliff head coach Kenny Ma said. "From not competing in over 18 months, to having a packed house on our first home match of the season – it was electrifying.

"The athletes were thrilled to be able to back in the environment with all of their family and friends supporting them again."

Ma said the Warriors weren't entirely sure what to expect out of La Sierra heading into the game and experimented with several combinations to counter the Golden Eagles throughout.

Ma ended up giving extended minutes to three freshmen, and sophomore Maddie Shepston (nine digs) led the offensive attack, finishing with a team-high eight kills.

Michelle Do and Taylin Natale led the Warriors with 14 assists respectively, while Jillian Hewitt tallied 18 digs and seven assists.

"I thought we performed decently well," Ma said. "But I think the big difference was the experience level on both teams. From my conversations with their coaches, they have a lot of returners and seniors who have been a part of the program for many years."

That experience showed on Thursday, and La Sierra controlled the battle at the net most of the night.

Alexa Lister led La Sierra with 13 kills and Michele Mendizabal was a point off the pace with 12 of her own.

"I thought La Sierra was a well-oiled machine, however, I really liked what we saw in our team," Ma said. "We have the talent to do great things, but now it's about putting all the pieces together, building trust and developing chemistry.

"Our team is getting better every single day."

Ma said the locker room talk after the contest was extremely positive, and it should have been. Despite its inexperience, Westcliff played with the longer, stronger, older Golden Eagles, and were in each set before La Sierra closed out like a veteran squad should.

Instead of making big mistakes, Ma said the Warriors lost points on the little things – communication, taking care of easy balls, being alert.

"We lost too many points on our unforced errors," he said. "Those can easily be cleaned up as we progress into the rest of the season."

Even though the Warriors walked away with the loss, the night on a whole felt like a big win – especially for the athletic program as a whole.

The gym was packed with players from many other sports, and it's that close-knit camaraderie within the Westcliff community that will carry the Warriors into the future.

"It was really heartwarming to see all the love we received from all of our other sports programs," Ma said. "The game really set the standard of our culture here at the university – where all of our programs are one big family. Our game was electric because of everyone who was there supporting us.

"What we have here is something special."

Welcome to the new era Westcliff Athletics.

To contact Brandon Petersen, e-mail brandonpetersen@westcliff.edu.