LA MIRADA, Calif. – Second verse same as the first for Lady Argo volleyball. In the team's second game of the 2016 Biola Volleyball/Red Lion-Anaheim Summer Slam and second game of the season, UGF followed the same pattern as the first, taking leads early in each set before allowing late set runs. The team lost to #16 Westmont University 3-0 (25-17, 25-17, 25-20).
 
Just as in the team's loss to #6 Midland University earlier in the day, UGF's errors, particularly hitting errors, cost the team early leads in each set. The Lady Argos slightly improved their hitting percentage since their morning contest with a percentage of 0.082 but still committed 25 hitting errors compared to Warrior's 12.
 
Those errors were particularly costly in the third set, where UGF held a 13-10 lead but lost 25-20 after committing 10 hitting errors.
 
"Our offense is starting to come together slowly by we are having a hard time slowing teams down defensively," UGF Head Coach Arunas Duda said. "Trying to work that out while playing top 15 teams has been a challenge, but I saw some nice things from several players today."
 
Other than hitting percentage and errors, the Lady Argos finished with an almost identical stat line to Westmont. The two teams were only separated by three kills (36-33 in favor of WU), four assists (35-31 WU) and were dead even in digs with 31 each. The other difference was net defense. The Lady Argos were blocked nine times and only came up with three of its own.
 
The good news for UGF was that star outside hitter Madison Wilhelm and transfer right side hitter Mariah Diaz started to find their timing with setters Dani Norling and Bree Davis.
Wilhelm, the team's 2015 kill leader finished with 11 kills and just 3 hitting errors for 0.308 percentage that exceeded her season percentage last year. She also added six digs, second best on the team, and one service ace.
 
Diaz adjusted well after some struggled in her first NAIA competition earlier in the day. Her 0.231 hitting percentage was second on the team behind Wilhelm amongst Lady Argos with more than one attempt. She finished with 5 kills, 2 errors and one block assist.
 
Leading to those kills were Norling, a junior, and Davis, a senior. The two setters combined for 30 of the team's 31 assists, a vast improvement from the 14 total assists against Midland. The split was almost dead even between the two as the Lady Argos adjust to playing a 5-2 offense instead of the 6-1 they ran in 2015. Davis finished with 16 assists while Norling had 14.
 
A number of young bench players saw action, but the clear standout was sophomore middle blocker Maya Kiruluta who finished second on the team in kills with 5 and 3 errors. She also added one block assist.
 
The loss brings UGF's record to 0-2 after one day of competition. Things won't get much easier with games on August 19 against #24 Northwestern College (Iowa) at 11 a.m. MT and #18 Southern Oregon University at 5 p.m.
 
Both games can be watched live with live stats.