LOS ANGELES — The Occidental women's volleyball team gave No. 9 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps a serious scare before coming up five points and one set short of a major upset, losing 3-2 to the Athenas at Rush Gymnasium on Friday.

Taylor Gorretta led Oxy with 11 kills, Cassandra Guidice had 10, and Claire Strohm and Amanda Herold each added nine as the Tigers played their best match of the season. Oxy setter Allie Sundara had 19 assists and played good defense with a team-best 18 digs. Herold and Degnan each had 10 digs. Hannah Wagner had six kills and three aces.

Margo Mafra Spencer led the Athenas with 11 kills and Shelbi Stein added 10. 

Set Scores: 20-25, 25-12, 25-19, 15-25, 15-10

Game 1: Occidental 25, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 20

The Tigers played some of their best volleyball of the season, jumping out to a 19-12 lead. Gorretta led the way with six kills on .500 hitting during the set, including Oxy's final two kills. Strohm had four kills on a nice mix of full swings and tip shots, and Amanda Herold and Cassandra Guidice each added three.

Herold and Sundara led Oxy's defense with four digs each. 

Game 2: Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 25, Occidental 12

After a slow start and falling behind 15-8, Wagner gave the Tigers a spark on a hard kill and ace to cut the lead to five, but CMS finished the set on a 10-2 run to even the set score and take over the momentum of the match.

After hitting .262 in the first set, the Tigers dropped to -.057.

Degnan had three digs for Oxy in the set. 

Game 3: Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 25, Occidental 19

The Tigers stayed competitive throughout the set and cut the CMS lead to 19-16 and 23-19 before falling behind in the match 2-1. 

Guidice had three kills in the set.

Game 4: Occidental 25, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 15

A mixture of solid Oxy play and CMS errors on serves, attacks and blocking at the net put the Tigers up 22-14 in position to force a fifth game. The Athenas called a timeout to regroup, but Oxy kept its foot on the gas pedal and rattled off three of the next four points to take the game on an ace by Wagner. 

Game 5: Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 15, Occidental 10

The Tigers looked a little off their game for the first handful of points, falling behind 5-1. Strohm righted the ship with a hard kill and then a CMS blocking error on a funky play at the net cut the Athenas lead to 5-3. 

Strohm and Guidice each cut the lead to one with kills, and the teams tied were tied at 7-7 and 10-10.

Oxy's Lauren Duffy's tip shot got blocked, Moore found the floor with a kill and an incredible save by CMS libero Mikenna Warner to get the ball back over the net on a point the Athenas took put CMS in control of the set up 13-10. 

The Athenas won the next two points, leaving Oxy five points and one set short of a major upset.  

Competing with CMS: First place Chapman defeated CMS 3-2 earlier this season, but no other SCIAC school has taken a set from the Athenas besides the Tigers.

Season Impact: The Tigers fall to 7-7 overall and 2-3 in SCIAC play.

CMS improves to 10-5 and 3-1.

Next Match: Oxy is back in action on Saturday at La Verne at 6 p.m.

CMS will head home to face Whittier on Saturday at 6 p.m.