PARKLAND, Wash. - Pacific Lutheran overcame a fierce battle from
the Willamette Bearcats to emerge with a 25-22, 25-22, 25-17
victory in a Northwest Conference volleyball match played Saturday
night in Olson Auditorium.
The Lutes, ranked No. 17 in the AVCA Division III Top 25 Poll,
improved their conference record to 8-0, and they have won all
eight of those matches in straight sets. With the victory, the
Lutes improve their overall record to 12-5 this year.
The Bearcats, who came into the match in the lower half of
the conference standings, gave the conference-leading Lutes all
they could handle before seeing their record fall to 5-11 overall
and 2-6 in the conference.
The first set saw 11 ties and four lead changes before the Lutes
finally pulled out the win. Willamette took its biggest lead of the
set at 5-2, but the hosts rallied and surged to a 12-8 advantage on
a kill by Kelsie Moore. Kills by Jessie McGray and Jaci Abeloe
helped the Bearcats tie the score at 13-13, and the set went back
and forth before the Lutes grabbed the momentum
on consecutive kills by Kelcy Joynt. The set finally ended on a
Willamette service error.
Willamette surged to an early lead in the second set, which was
a virtual copy of the first with 11 ties and five lead changes. The
final tie came at 21-21, but Moore recorded a kill out of a timeout
to swing the momentum to PLU. A kill by Joynt and Moore's service
ace ended the set.
The third set was all Pacific Lutheran after an early 1-1 tie.
The Lutes built an 11-4 lead and eventually led by as many as nine
points at 22-13 before closing out their 24th consecutive set
victory against conference opponents.
Moore and Joynt both had big nights for the Lutes, Moore
finishing with 12 kills and a .333 attack percentage and Joynt
adding 12 more kills with a .286 attack rate. Beth Hanna had nine
kills and a match-high 16 digs for the Lutes, who also got 40
assists from Sarah Beaver and 14 digs from Brenna Archibald.
McGraw had a big match for the Bearcats with 12 kills, a .250
attack percentage and a team-high 13 digs. Brigit Miller
contributed 28 assists and both Annike Moffett and Kellie Menghini
had 10 digs.
- PLU -
