Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - After a pair of wins to close last week's Oregon Trail Classic, opening day of the Cal Lu Fornia Invitational was not so kind to the Whitman College women's volleyball team who dropped a pair of matches to Redlands and later Chapman on Friday afternoon. Set scores against Redlands were 25-21, 20-25, 13-25, 25-22, 15-8 and 25-15, 25-16, 25-16 versus Chapman.

After dropping a heartbreaker in the opener to Redlands, the Blues (3-3) closed the day with another tough outing this time against Chapman. Megan Henry drilled a team-high 11 kills in the loss with Claire McCarthy posting a Whitman-high 11 digs.

Jessi Lumsden's 14 kills and Sara Utsugi's 16 digs were team and match highs for the Panthers (6-1).

Set one saw a quick five-point burst midway through the set distance Chapman from the Blues. After a pair of Whitman errors followed by kills from Lumsden and Mavis Lui, Whitman found itself on the wrong end of a 14-5 score.

Set two was more of the same as the Panthers used a 6-0 run to establish an early 12-3 lead. Lumsden and Nayelli Munoz both had a pair of kills before Kalli Dickey's kill halted the run. The lead extended to 10 points before Elyse Benavides got in a pair of back-to-back blocks to bring the score to 18-11, but it proved to be too tall of a mountain to climb.

It was a late Chapman surge in set three that did in the Blues, who led 8-1 after a Benavides kill. Chapman would rally, mounting a 9-2 run and tying the set on a Courtney Justus ace. The Blues regained the lead at 12-10, but the Panthers turned it on and finished the set on a 15-4 jaunt to seal the sweep.

Whitman returns to action on Sunday for the final day of the invitational. The Blues face Whittier College at 2:00 p.m. and close the tournament with a 6:00 p.m. match against UC Santa Cruz.