The University of La Verne completed the first round of league competition by earning its sixth straight win in recording a 3-0 sweep over the Whitter Poets in SCIAC volleyball action Tuesday night in Whittier.

Set scores were 25-21, 25-14 and 25-19.

The Leopards reversed fortunes against Whittier, who swept La Verne in both contests during the 2011 campaign.  Tuesday night marked a stark contrast as the Leos hit .306 as a team while holding the Poets to a .088 percentage.

La Verne never trailed in the first set, opening leads of 9-4 and 14-8.  Up 15-11, La Verne took the next five points to seize a 20-11 advantage.  Despite a late surge from the Poets, the Leos would claim the opening set on a kill from Catie Logan to prevail 25-21 to take a 1-0 lead.

In the second set, La Verne led 11-10 before embarking on a 6-0 run to seize a 17-10 cushion.  The Leopards maintained their margin and closed the frame by winning the final three points on kills from Logan, Randi Taylor-Toomay and Kendall Kraiss.

La Verne started strong in the third frame by taking a 12-5 lead.  Whittier chipped away and closed the gap at 20-17 but La Verne turned back the Poets by rattling off four of the next five points to extend its advantage to 23-17.  A Whittier attack error gave the Leopards a match point, which was followed by a Kayla Cribbs to close out the contest.

Logan paced the La Verne attack with 10 kills in 16 attempts en route to a .562 percentage.  Taylor-Toomay added 9 kills while Brittany Taxley contributed 6 kills.  Kraiss totaled 26 assists and Morgan Donahue collected 19 digs in the sweep.

Alyssa Sialaris led the Poets with 14 kills, while Alayna Rigo finished with 9 on the evening.  Torrey Mitsunaga finished with 15 assists.

The victory allowed the Leopards (14-2, 7-1 SCIAC) to move into sole possession of first place in the conference standings. Whittier dropped to 7-8 and 2-5, respectively.

La Verne begins the second round of SCIAC play Friday night as it travels to Claremont to face Pomona-Pitzer (8-8, 3-5) in a 7:30 pm start.