LANCASTER, Calif. – Caltech headed up North to the Antelope Valley and came home with their second victory of the 2023 season, sweeping the West Coast Baptist College Eagles in their home arena Monday night.

The win was the Beavers' eighth in a row against WCBC — a flawless streak of 3-0 match scores that began in November 2016 — and their ninth in the last 10 meetings between the two programs.

After the Eagles opened the match with a service error, Sophia Parker seved first for Caltech and stretched their opening run to six points, including a kill by senior Helen Brackney and a service ace. The hosts earned a sideout and won the next three points before the Beavers launched another six-point run to earn a 12-4 advantage, sophomore Olivia Xu claiming the 10th point with a kill. Caltech cruised ahead and amassed a 23-9 lead on a five-point run capped by back-to-back aces by sophomore Giulia Murgia. The hosts would knock down just one more kill before Caltech claimed Set 1 by a 25-10 score.

Senior setter Halle Blend led off the second set and picked up a service ace for a 2-0 lead. Improved hitting by the home side earned them their first lead of the match at 6-4. After trading points a couple times, Caltech tied the set at 8-8 on a pair of kills by Blend. The Eagles clawed ahead by two once more, but then Caltech picked eight of the next nine points on kills by Claire Perhach, Marissa Till, Parker, Brackney and Shreeya Thuppul, along with a service ace by Celine Wu. Caltech led 17-12, and then replied to a 5-point run by the home side with one of their own and the score was 22-17 before Caltech prevailed by a 25-18 margin.

The third set ended up being the final one as again the Beavers jumped out to a commanding start and never looked back, opening with a 6-2 lead followed by a 13-8 margin Parker talling a couple more kills along with senior Carolyn Lu. Caltech led by as many as seven points at 19-12 before the two teams traded three-point runs to finish up the set with another 25-18 score as the Beavers sealed the sweep. 

Parker led the Beavers in kills with seven, Blend led both teams in assists with 11 and Wu picked up a match-leading 11 digs.

Head Coach Tom Gardner and the Beavers will next fly out to Ohio for the Oberlin Invite, beginning with Friday matches against Wooster at 2 p.m. and St. Vincent at 6 p.m. Follow the team at https://gocaltech.com/coverage.