By Brandon Petersen

The Westcliff women's volleyball team couldn't be faulted if they were looking forward to Friday night's Cal Pac meeting with fellow league-leader Benedictine Mesa Thursday night at JLAW.

Friday's contest is sure to be an epic showdown. 

But Thursday's match counted too, and the Warriors got caught napping in a surprising four-set loss to Embry-Riddle, 23-25, 25-17, 18-25, 13-25. 

Westcliff finds itself now deadlocked with Benedictine at 10-1.

"It think maybe we got a little too comfortable," Westcliff head coach Kenny Ma said. "We were playing so well — and I think people were waiting for other people to do something rather than taking ownership — just do their assignment."

After the Eagles took a highly competitive first set, Westcliff stormed back in the second with a dominant win, and were looking just as good in the third set before something inexplicable clicked about midway through, and from that point on, Embry-Riddle controlled everything. 

The fourth set was never in doubt.

"I feel like our emotions from the third set carried over to the fourth," Ma said. "And so we talked (afterward) about controlling our emotions. When something goes wrong, we're all mad, upset, whatever, but we can't repeat the same mistake.

"I asked them to use tonight and tomorrow morning to get their heads back into the game. It's a new game (tomorrow)."

The numbers looked pretty good for the Warriors. 

Maddie Shepston (16), Fiona Moesching (17) and Elise Brown (14) all racked up impressive kill totals. 

Michelle Do (28 assists) and Lina Ellila (18) did their thing at net.

Ava Himstreet led the way defensively with 18 digs and Leonor Chambel had 11 of her own.

But every team, no matter how good, goes through ups and downs, and off-nights happen.

What's important is how the Warriors respond Friday.

"We are a strong team mentally," Ma said. "There's a reason why we're still at the top of the Cal Pac. We've done it in the past. 

"This was just an off-game."