La Verne, Calif. - Junior outside hitter Allie Frappier (pictured) had 28 kills, including the clinching one in a 16-14 win in the decisive fifth game, as the Pomona-Pitzer Volleyball team defeated La Verne in the SCIAC opener for both teams on Tuesday.

With the win, the Sagehens improve to 6-3 on the year and 1-0 in the SCIAC. Game scores were 25-23, 25-13, 23-25, 18-25, 16-14.

Pomona-Pitzer built an 18-11 lead in the first game, but had to fight off a late La Verne rally for a 25-23 win, as Frappier sealed the win with a kill. Junior middle hitter Samantha Cahill had a kill to make the score 24-22, and after La Verne fought off one game point, Frappier picked up the decisive kill.

The second game saw Frappier match La Verne in points all by herself with 13 kills, as the Sagehens won 25-13. She had six kills in the first 10 points as Pomona-Pitzer jumped out to a 10-3 lead and cruised from there.

La Verne was able to avert the sweep by getting the final two points for a 25-23 win in the third game, and then pulled away for a 25-18 win in the fourth to push the match to a fifth and deciding game.

The fifth game was tied 5-5, when the Sagehens went on a 5-0 run, keyed by two aces from junior Kirea Mazzolini. La Verne bounced back with the next seven points to take the lead at 12-10 and were up 14-12 before Frappier and Mazzolini saved match points with kills, and then combined on a block to gave Pomona-Pitzer a 15-14 lead. Frappier then came through again with her second game-winning kill of the match to finish off the 3-2 win.  

Frappier accounted for just over half of Pomona-Pitzer's 55 kills and added 15 digs, while senior Beth Smilkstein led the defense with 24 digs.

Pomona-Pitzer will be back in action next Tuesday when it travels to Cal Lutheran for a 7:30 p.m. contest.