Thousand Oaks, Calif. - The Pomona-Pitzer Volleyball team gave fifth-ranked Cal Lutheran all it could handle, but it fell 15-13 in the fifth set on Tuesday evening.

With the win, Cal Lutheran improves to 12-1 overall (with the only loss coming to NAIA Westmont) and 2-0 in the SCIAC, while Pomona-Pitzer slips to 6-4 overall and 1-1 in league play.

Game scores were 25-21, 25-27, 25-20, 21-25, 15-13 as the Sagehens nearly came from behind for the upset. Pomona-Pitzer held three-point leads on four occasions in the fifth set (4-1, 5-2, 6-3, 7-4) before a 6-1 Cal Lutheran run made the score 10-8.

Samantha Cahill had a kill to close the gap to 10-9 and a hitting error knotted the score up at 10-10. Ellen Yamasaki answered a Cal Lutheran point with a kill, and Allie Frappier (pictured), who came into the night ranked No. 1 in the nation in kills per set (5.26) and had another huge night attacking, tied the score with kills twice to make it 12-12 and 13-13.

However, a Regals tip kill fell into the middle of the floor to make the score 14-13, and the Sagehens were called for a back row violation on the final point to give Cal Lutheran the closest of wins.

Frappier finished with 32 kills in 69 attempts, matching her personal high with the Sagehens, which she has now achieved three times in her first 10 matches. It is the second-highest single-match total in school history, behind only the record of 35 set by Joanne Nielsen in 1990. She had over half of Pomona-Pitzer's kills (58).

Freshman Kelli Derrah finished off 27-25 win in game two to get the Sagehens back in the match, when she put down a deflected ball at the net. Pomona-Pitzer then won game four with a late surge after Cal Lutheran took a 17-13 lead.  After a Yamasaki kill gave the Sagehens a 20-19 lead and forced a Regals timeout, Pomona-Pitzer had two blocks to finish off a 5-0 run to take command of the game 23-19, and then won it on a service error.

Yamasaki finished with nine kills in 22 attempts, while freshman setter Elizabeth Sun had 39 assists. Kylie McLogan led four Regals in double figures with 19 kills.

Pomona-Pitzer will be back in action on Saturday for two conference matches, taking on Caltech at 1 p.m. and Occidental at 6 p.m.