CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Rhodes College volleyball team dropped their opening two contests of the 2016 season at the Pacific Coast Classic hosted by Pomona-Pitzer, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, and La Verne. 

The Lynx were swept in their opening contest by the Redlands followed by a tough four set loss to the home-standing Sagehens of Pomona-Pitzer.

In their opener, errors proved to be costly as Rhodes finished with 19 errors and only 28 kills (.097 hitting percentage). Pomona-Pitzer had 17 errors, but came away with 36 kills in the contest. 

The Redlands used big runs including a 13-point rally in the second set to take a 2-0 lead and eventually win the match in three sets. For Rhodes, sophomore August Bishop led the way with seven kills while freshman Heather Antrim added five kills. Freshman Sophia Quesada had eight digs while sophomore Hannah McCarty and freshman Lindsay Blasius combined for 15 assists.

The Lynx looked to rebound in their second match against Pomona-Pitzer. After dropping a highly-contested first set, in which the Sagehens earned three of the last four points for a 25-23 win, the Lynx rebounded with a dominant second set, going up 15-8 en rout to a 25-19 victory.

The Sagehens won the third set, 25-21, and used that momentum to cruise in the fourth set to a 25-15 win to clinch the match.

Rhodes vastly improved their hitting in the second game, finishing with 48 kills to go with 26 errors for a hitting percentage of .159, out hitting the Sagehens (.138).

Sophomore Ellen Platt was excellnt, leading the way with 10 kills on 21 attempts and no errors, hitting .476 for the match. Bishop added nine kills and a solid .238 hitting percentage. Sophomore Camila Zimmerman and Lulu Schulz each had nine kills as well.

Zimmerman added 15 digs on the day while senior Catherine Grimes had 16 digs. Blasius had 19 assists on the afternoon while sophomore Caroline Perlis and Antrim each had five blocks.

Rhodes will look to bounce back tomorrow afternoon as they will be on the campus of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. They will take on Stevens at 11 AM CT/9 AM PT and follow that up with a 3:30 PM CT/1:30 PM PT matchup with Northland. All games can be seen via live video courtesy of Pomona-Pitzer, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, and La Verne. Click here to watch the games live tomorrow afternoon.