Caltech Women's Volleyball's offense was in full swing Saturday against Cal Lutheran as junior Alize Bakker (Portland, Ore. / Westview) broke the program record for kills in a single season.  

It was awesome seeing Alize break the single season kills record as she made that goal real on the last day of last season, and she worked so hard to make it a reality," Head Coach Tom Gardner said. "She does everything well for us and sets a great example of work ethic to the rest of the team." 

Bakker surpassed the previous record of 235 kills set by Lauren Li in the 2019 season. Bakker tallied 13 kills against Cal Lutheran and now has 241 this year with five games remaining on the regular-season schedule. Her 13-kill performance was part of a double-double in which she also amassed a remarkable 20 digs.  

Bakker has achieved at least 220 kills in each of the past two seasons. She is 202 kills away from tying the program record for career kills. That mark was set at 702 by Li during her 2016-19 tenure with the Beavers.  

First-year Rena Zheng (Peoria, Ill. / Dunlap High School) led all attackers with 15 kills on Saturday to go along with 10 digs for a double-double of her own. Bakker and Zheng's offensive success was enabled by a match-leading 31 assists from sophomore setter Ailsa Shen (Calgary, Alberta / Western Canada HS).  

"Ailsa has done an excellent job running the offense in the setter position and leads the SCIAC in assists per set, Gardner said. "She has helped Rena settle in to put up some big kill numbers and is giving all of our hitters good opportunities to be successful."

Senior setter / libero Giulia Murgia (Iglesias, Italy / Istituto di Istruzione Superiore G. Asproni) led all players with a remarkable 25 digs for her fifth 20-dig performance of the year.  

Caltech Women's Volleyball travels to La Verne to face the University of La Verne Friday, Oct. 31 at 7:00 p.m.  

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