PARKLAND - Pacific Lutheran regained its offensive touch and did
so in impressive fashion on Friday night as the Lutes swept the
visiting Lewis & Clark Pioneers, 25-13, 26-24, 25-17, in a
Northwest Conference volleyball match played in Olson
Auditorium.
The Lutes (14-6 overall, 8-3 NWC) struggled last weekend in
dropping a pair of road matches to Whitworth and Whitman, but there
was no hangover from those defeats on this night. PLU finished with
a .378 overall hitting percentage, including a stunning .619 in
swamping the Pioneers in the opening set.
Lewis & Clark (8-13, 4-7) had a respectable .219 attack
percentage in the match, but it was not nearly good enough to
overcome PLU's outstanding performance.
Senior outside hitter Beth Hanna, a
three-time All-American, led the Lutes with 13 kills and
a .462 attack percentage, and frosh outside hitter Allison Wood had her best
match as a collegian with 10 kills and a .412 percentage. The Lutes
finished with eight team blocks, including Erin Bremond's three
solos. Bremond, a 5-7 junior middle blocker, also had seven
kills and a .467 attack percentage. Junior outside hitter Kelsie Moore had a
team-high 12 digs to go along with nine kills.
For Lewis & Clark, Gabby Hands and Margaret Dowling both had
outstanding matches in finishing with 10 kills apiece. Hands had a
.562 attack percentage and Dowling finished at .444. Lou Ohki had
15 digs and Kelsie Dorpat chipped in 19 assists for the Pios.
Pacific Lutheran smoked Lewis & Clark in the opening set,
scoring the first six points , highlighted by a pair of kills each
by Hanna and Moore. The Lutes built the lead to 11-3 and took
their first double-digit advantage at 20-10 on a service ace by
Hanna. Sarah
Beaver, who finished the match with a season-high 41 assists
for a three-set match, finished the first set with a dump kill.
The second set was close throughout as neither team led by more
than three points at any time. Lewis & Clark took a 7-4 lead on
Kayla Ernewein's kill, only to see the Lutes regained the lead at
10-8 on Blair
Bjorkman's ace. The Pioneers inched their way back to a 17-15
lead, and from that point on neither team led by two points until
the Lutes scored the winner on a ball handling error by the
Pioneers.
In the set, Hanna had seven kills and no errors in 13 attempts
for the Lutes, while Hands had five kills in nine attempts and
Dowling five in eight swings.
With the score at 4-4 in the third set, the Lutes scored seven
of the next eight points to take an 11-5 lead, and they were never
headed. The Pios battled back to within two points at 12-10 when
Hands and Ernewein put up a block, but again the Lutes eventually
pulled away before finishing it on consecutive kills by Wood and
Hanna. Wood finished the set with a team-best five kills, while
Hands had four in the set for the Pios.
Pacific Lutheran returns to conference action at 7 p.m. Saturday
when it hosts the Pacific Boxers in Olson Auditorium.
- PLU -
