PASADENA, Calif. (Oct. 15, 2021) – Junior Dallas Taylor (Phoenix, Ariz. / Saguaro) put on a clinic to lead Caltech volleyball to its third SCIAC victory of the season on Friday night, sweeping Occidental College in three sets.

Taylor was unstoppable on the night, smacking three kills in the Beavers' first six points and another three in their first five of the third set en route to a SCIAC career-high 16 on a dominant .577 hitting percentage. Her efforts were key in Caltech never conceding the lead once, particularly on early over balls that she alertly picked off the net before the Oxy defense could react.

With the victory, Caltech moves into a tie for sixth place in the conference at 3-7 – just three matches out of the last qualification berth for the SCIAC Postseason Tournament, though with remaining matches against each current top-4 team.

Caltech jumped out to early leads in all three sets, fending off Oxy's rally in the first to keep a point ahead all the way through as the rivals traded nearly point for point until the Beavers surged ahead, 22-17. The Tigers fought back to a 23-22 deficit but folded on a service error followed by an ace from senior Megan Wang (Henderson, Nev. / Advanced Tech. Acad.).

The visitors never contested the second set as Caltech cruised to a 25-12 victory and though they put up more of a fight to open the third, the hosts fired off a 7-2 run midway through for a 21-15 edge. That proved to be just enough to keep comfortably ahead for the remainder of the match, despite a last-gasp 5-1 run by Oxy, with several emphatic kills by sophomore Halle Blend (Farmers Branch, Texas / Hockaday) and seniors Sydney Richardson (Granite Bay, Calif. / Roseville) and Isabell Yang (Arcadia, Calif. / Arcadia) pinpointing the win.

Wang accumulated 21 digs while adding four assists and two aces while Richardson tallied seven kills and four clutch digs. Blend averaged the most assists per set (13.0) of her career with Yang chipping in six kills and 13 digs and senior Alison Noyes (Falmouth, Maine / Falmouth) notching nine kills and five assertive blocks.  Sophomore Gabriella Twombly (Weston, Fla. / Archbishop McCarthy) also stepped up in a major and unexpected way defensively, making 10 digs after recording just a single one at middle blocker over her previous 15 sets.

Head Coach Tom Gardner and the Beavers will test their recent run of excellent form against the nation's best tomorrow as they travel to No. 2 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges.