Westmont Volleyball (21-5, 15-3 GSAC) saw their nine-match winning streak come to an end with a five-set loss to William Jessup on Saturday in Rocklin. Westmont took the first two sets of the match, before Jessup caught fire for the reverse-sweep in the end.
With Jessup’s first win against Westmont in program history, the Rocklin-Warriors clinched the number-two seed in the GSAC Tournament. With Westmont as the regular season champion and number-one seed, Saturday’s match has the possibility of being a preview for next weekend’s GSAC Championship match.
“I’m super proud of the way our team battled,” said Westmont head coach Ruth McGolpin. “Obviously, a reverse-sweep stinks, but you have to hand it to William Jessup. They changed their lineup in set three, and it worked.
“A couple of their attackers were absolutely on fire, and at the end of the day, they played great. We continued to battle, and our team never backed down. A loss is a loss, and it’s a humbling experience for us.”
Three of the five sets were ultimately decided by just two points, with Westmont taking the opening game by a score of 25-23. Then, in set two, Westmont rode a five-point run in the middle of the set to distance themselves from Jessup, ultimately taking the game by a score of 25-17.
In set three, Jessup returned the favor, going on a 5-0 run in the heart of the set to take a double-digit advantage, before forcing the fourth set with a 25-17 win of their own.
Set four was the first time Westmont had a chance to leave with the win, as the road-Warriors led 20-16 going into a Jessup timeout. Out of the timeout, Jessup went on a 5-1 run to tie the game at 21. Then, with the game tied at 23, back-to-back kills from Jessup gave the home-Warriors a 25-23 win to force set five.
In the fifth set, Westmont held 3-0, 9-5, and 11-8 leads, but Jessup refused to accept any result other than the upset. Jessup tied the game 13-13, before Westmont had match-point at both 14-13, and 15-14. With the score 15-14 in favor of Westmont, Jessup scored three consecutive points to take the decisive fifth set by a score of 17-15.
The first point of the final run was an attacking error by Westmont, before Jessup capped off the upset with a pair of slam-dunk kills.
“We’re people of faith and know everything happens for a reason,” assured McGolpin. “It’s a humbling experience and we know what we have to work on. Those are the kind of matches we’ll face in the postseason, so it’s almost better to have been pushed to five sets today.
“We went the distance, and came out on the losing end, but I have faith that we’ll learn from it.”
Westmont will now turn the page to the GSAC Tournament, which begins next weekend in Surprise, Arizona. For Westmont, after earning the top-seed and a first round bye, their first game will be in the GSAC Semifinals, which take place on Friday, Nov. 11, at 4 p.m.
Jacob Norling is the sports information assistant at Westmont College.
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