Although battling hard in every set, Loyola Marymount University women’s volleyball squad suffered its first home loss of the season Oct. 9, losing a West Coast Conference match to Pepperdine at Gersten Pavilion.

The 25-23, 26-28, 25-22, 25-23 outcome left LMU at 4-2 in WCC play, 10-8 overall and 4-1 at home. All four sets were closely fought, but the Lions could only win set two in which there were 11 ties and six lead changes.

Megan Rice, the redshirt junior from Hermosa Beach, led LMU with 25 kills and Savannah Slattery had 14. Tess Reid recorded 40 assists and 14 digs, Bo Culo 21 digs and Alexis Morrow four blocks.

Among the leaders for Pepperdine (9-8 overall, 5-1 WCC) was junior Shannon Scully, former Mater Dei star, with 14 kills, 13 digs and four blocks.

This week, LMU travels to Northern California for WCC matches at St. Mary’s (6-10 overall, 2-4 WCC) on Oct. 17 and Pacific (11-7, 3-3) on Oct. 19. Through Oct. 12, LMU was fourth in the conference behind San Diego (14-4, 7-0), BYU (15-2, 6-0) and Pepperdine.