La Verne, CA – The Occidental volleyball team opened their 2023 season with a split at the Pacific Coast Classic tournament.  The first day of the tournament saw the Tigers go up against Nebraska Wesleyan University and Alfred University.  The Tigers fell to the Prairie Wolves and took down the Saxons.

Occidental 3, Alfred 1

In game two, the Tigers rebounded in an extremely tight opening set against the Saxons.  After trading points most of the set, the Tigers fell five points behind before going on a scoring streak.  Katelyn Cahigas and Lizzy Kerman each earned a pair of kills and Leena Abelo closed out the set with a service ace to give the Tigers their first set win, 25-23.

Alfred took set two 25-12.  After that minor change in game flow, the energy shifted when Skye Garcia and Aniya Hawthorne blocked an attack attempt by Taylor Malone.  This was the start of the Tigers' comeback rally and the start of their first scoring streak of two.  Hawthorne went on to get two more kills and Carranza followed with two service aces to give the lead to the Tigers.  Oxy briefly lost the lead after a service error, but recovered quickly to take set three, 25-18.  Set four played out similar to set three (25-19) and the team was able to take their first win of the season, 3-1.

Hawthorne led the team in points at 12.5 (eight kills, seven blocks), followed by Carranza at 9.5 (four kills, four aces).  Albelo and Camille Thé earned 15 and 10 assists, respectively.  Carranza and Kerman held the back line, earning 13 and 12 digs, respectively.