THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - Phoebe Shorney had 13 kills in 18 attempts in the first match, hitting .722, and Stella Gajar had 10 kills in 12 attempts in the nightcap (.833) as the 16th-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps volleyball team earned a 3-1 win over Covenant and a 3-0 win over Puget Sound on the first day of the California Lutheran Invitational on Friday. 

With the two wins, CMS moves to 5-3 on the season, as set scores were 25-15, 25-21, 25-27, 25-17 against Covenant (3-4) and 25-15, 25-17, 25-23 against Puget Sound (25-23). 

Brooke McKee had 36 kills combined in the two matches, with 19 in the opener and 17 in the nightcap, raising her career total to 896. Samantha Riter had a combined 49 assists (29 vs. Covenant, 20 vs. Puget Sound), while Mia Urosevic had 29 digs (16 vs. Covenant, 13 vs. Puget Sound) to lead CMS in both matches. 

Against Covenant, CMS never trailed in the first set, using a 3-0 run to take a 7-4 lead on two straight Hayden Lin aces, and capping off the set with a pair of Riter aces for a 25-15 win. The second set saw Shae Delany pick up two aces in an 8-0 run that pushed the lead to 14-4, before Covenant clawed back within three points at 20-17. Solvej Eversoll stopped the run with a kill, and then combined with Anna Ryan on a block, before Quincy Rodin finished off a 25-21 win with a kill. 

Covenant stayed alive with a 27-25 win in the third set, fighting off a match point after a McKee kill put the Athena ahead 24-23. But CMS responded in the fourth with a 25-17 win, using back-to-back kills from Eversoll to go ahead 23-14, and then finishing off the match with McKee's 19th kill. 

The Puget Sound match began with CMS taking a 5-1 lead in the first set after two Delany kills and a Gajar kill. The Loggers kept it close at 10-8 before a 5-0 run, keyed by two kills and a solo block from McKee, made it 15-8. Gajar then capped off the set with a kill for a 25-15 win. 

Puget Sound led 9-7 in the second set before Mia Urosevic tied it with two straight aces, and Gajar had two straight kills for an 11-9 lead. Gajar had two straight blocks, combining with Lauren Staples on teh first, to push the lead to 19-11 and McKee had the last two CMS points with kills for a 25-17 win and a 2-0 lead. 

Puget Sound nearly forced it to a fourth set, pulling ahead 20-18 in the third, but McKee had three straight kills down 21-20 to put the Athenas ahead 23-21. After the Loggers earned the next point, McKee had another kill for a 24-22 lead, and Shorney finished off the match with a clutch kill at 24-23 to give the Athenas their second win of the day. 

CMS will conclude the Cal Lutheran Invitational tomorrow with a match against UC Santa Cruz.