Claremont, Calif. - Playing without top hitter Michelle Schultz (Chicago, Ill.) due to injury, the Pomona-Pitzer Volleyball team hung close with Claremont-Mudd-Scripps for most of the match, but the Athenas came away with a 3-0 win on Tuesday evening.

Game scores were 25-17, 25-20 and 25-20 as Pomona-Pitzer falls to 8-8 overall and 3-5 in the SCIAC with the loss. CMS improves its record to 11-5 overall and 4-4 in the league with the win.

Schultz entered the week with a team-high 167 kills, with sophomore Ellen Yamasaki (Salinas, Calif. - pictured) second with 143. Yamasaki had to bear most of the offensive burden for the Sagehens on Tuesday in Schultz' absence and produced a match-high 14 kills, but nobody else on the team had more than four.

CMS was led by Regina Mullen and Megan Richman with 11 kills apiece. Senior libero Lauren Kim (Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.) had a match-high 16 digs defensively, while Monique Nugyen contributed six kills in 16 attempts and had six blocks for the Athenas.

The Sagehens had their best chance in the second game, trailing only 19-18 after a block from Samantha Cahill (Vancouver, Wash.) and Dani Kritter (Culpepper, Va.). However, CMS answered with four straight points, with Nguyen recording two kills and a block in that stretch, to take control.

In the third game, the Sagehens cut a six-point deficit down to two on two occasions (20-18, 21-19), but the Athenas tallied three straight points to take control. Yamasaki's 14th kill kept the comeback hopes alive, but Bennett Jones finished off the match with a kill that was nearly blocked by Pomona-Pitzer, but the ball rolled all the way across the top of the net, and fell out of bounds for the winning point.  

Pomona-Pitzer will be back in action on Friday when it hosts La Verne for a 7:30 p.m. contest.