La Verne, CA — September 2, 2025 — The Den The Bearcats defended their home court in dramatic fashion Tuesday night, taking down the Rancho Cucamonga Cougars in four hard-fought sets to improve to 6-3 on the season. The Cougars entered the Den riding a wave of momentum, but the Bearcats had no intentions of letting that roll continue. Junior standout Sara Yeats ignited the offense with a dominant performance, tallying 18 kills to keep the Cougars on their heels all night. Sophomore Elle Howie came up clutch, putting an exclamation point on the win with a thunderous block to seal the match. The Bearcats came out firing, capitalizing on early Cougar miscues to take a commanding 25-8 win in the opening set. But Rancho Cucamonga responded in the second, jumping ahead by five late in the frame. After a Bearcat timeout, the home team regrouped and surged back, rallying to steal the set 25-23 and go up 2-0. The third set proved to be the lone stumble for the Bearcats, as they fell behind early and couldn’t recover, dropping it 18-25. However, the late push in that set carried over into the fourth, where the Bearcats regained control and closed out the match in convincing fashion. Next up, the Bearcats hit the road to face Charter Oak on Thursday, September 4 at 6:00 p.m., looking to keep the momentum rolling.