By Sara Elcano, Assistant Athletics Communications Director

THOUSAND OAKS, CALIF. -- The Willamette University volleyball team dropped its final two matches of the Cal-Lu-fornia Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 11 at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, Calif. The weekend concluded a string of nine consecutive matches on the road to open the season for Willamette.

The Bearcats lost the first match to the Tigers of Occidental College, 25-22, 25-22 and 25-17. In Willamette's second match of the day, the Bearcats pushed Claremont-Mudd-Scripps to a fifth set before CMS won, 20-25, 25-21, 17-25, 25-15 and 15-13.

Willamette moved to 4-5 this season. Occidental improved to 3-1 and CMS moved to 7-2.

In the match against Occidental, senior outside hitter Molly Blankenship (Spokane, WA/Spokane Falls CC) led Willamette with 13 kills. Madisyn Leenstra (So., MH/OH, Bellingham, WA/Sehome HS) earned four kills on eight attacks for a .500 hitting percentage.

Emily Compton (Fr., S, Portola, Ca/Boise State Univ.) recorded 24 assists against the Tigers. Kathy Lee Glenn (So., LIB/DS, Murrieta, CA/Vista Murrieta HS) achieved 18 digs.

Blankenship contributed 15 kills and 13 digs versus Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. Shanon Waltz (Fr., MH, Honolulu, HI/La Pietra School) and Kirsten Brehmer (Fr., MH/OPP, Evergreen CO/Evergreen HS) each finished with eight kills against the Athenas. Waltz earned a .667 hitting percentage and Brehmer hit .400.

Compton guided the WU offense against CMS with 43 assists. Glenn registered 19 digs for the Bearcats.

Willamette returns home to open Northwest Conference play against Linfield College. The match is set for Friday, Sept. 17 at 7 p.m. (PDT) in Cone Field House.

More information will be added once the opponent statistics are available.