LMU Volleyball: Lions open WCC season with dual sweeps

After a break-even non-conference season filled with matches against top teams from around the country, the Loyola Marymount University women’s volleyball team celebrated its first home matches of the season in a big way, sweeping Santa Clara and San Francisco last week.

For the Lions (8-6 overall), it was the ideal start to the West Coast Conference season, especially with three conference matches ahead this week.

Santa Clara, Sept. 26: The 25-14, 25-21, 25-22 win was led by Savannah Slattery’s 14 kills, Jessie Prichard’s 29 assists and Bo Culo’s 11 digs. LMU used a 7-0 run to put the first set away, and delivered at the key moments to win the latter two sets, despite 13 assists from Santa Clara’s Michele Shaffer (ex-La Reina HS) and 11 digs from Gretchen Reinert (ex-Santa Margarita HS) who played well for the Broncos (10-5).

San Francisco, Sept. 28: Once again, the Lions overpowered their opponents in set one. 25-12, then eked out a 25-23 second set win before wrapping up the sweep 25-20. Megan Rice had 15 kills; Slattery had 13 kills and four blocks; Prichard had 34 assists and seven digs; and Culo had nine digs.

This week: LMU travels to Provo, Utah, for an Oct. 1 WCC match against BYU, then returns home for conference play at Gersten Pavilion against Gonzaga on Oct. 3 (7 p.m.) and Portland on Oct. 5 (1 p.m.).