Kelsie Moore had 15 kills and Erin Bremond added 13 as Pacific Lutheran strengthened its grip on second place in the Northwest Conference volleyball standings Friday night with a 25-27, 25-20, 25-9, 25-12 victory over the visiting Whitman Missionaries at Olson Auditorium.
With the win, the Lutes improve to 18-5 overall and 10-3 in the conference. They will be either one or two games behind conference-leading Whitworth, depending on how its Friday night match against Puget Sound turned out. Either way, PLU hosts Whitworth at 5 p.m. Saturday in a battle of the NWC's top two teams.
PLU, ranked No. 22 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association Division III national poll, seemed well on the way to a convincing sweep of Whitman, leading the first set 17-7 before the Missionaries, 3-16 overall and 2-11 in the NWC, stepped up and stole the set.
A kill by Megan Bafus got it started, and the Missionaries rolled off six straight points on Rachel Shober's serve to pull within three at 17-14. Courtney Brewer had a pair of kills, Jazmin Moledina added another, and Shober recorded an ace during the run.
PLU still led 22-17, only to see Whitman score six of the next seven points to tie it at 23-23, with Bafus providing a pair of kills during the run. A Whitman service error put the Lutes within a point of the win, but the Missionaries refused to fold. The score was tied at 25-25 when Moledina recorded a service ace and Jillian Davis a kill to finish Whitman's big comeback.
In the second set, the teams were tied at 9-9 when the Lutes finally gained a lead they would not lose, though they didn't lead by as many as four points until Bremond's kill made it 23-19. They finally closed out the set at 25-20 when setter Samantha North dumped the ball into the open court.
The final two sets were much like the first set, only this time PLU didn't allow Whitman to take away the momentum. The Lutes raced to a 9-1 lead in the third set, took their first double-digit lead at 16-6, and cruised in from there. Moore had five of her kills in that set. In the fourth set, PLU grabbed a 14-4 lead on Moore's service ace, and the Missionaries never got closer than eight points the rest of the way.
Kelsey Pacolt added eight kills for the Lutes and led the team with a .375 attack percentage, helping the team to a .222 mark for the match. Bremond had a .367 percentage and Moore hit .241 for the victors. North had 42 assists, and PLU got great back row play from Blair Bjorkman with 22 digs and Rose Mattson with 20. PLU also had eight team blocks, including four block assists each from Amy Wooten and Bremond.
For Whitman, Brewer finished with nine kills, followed by Davis with eight and Moledina with seven. Annie Sing was all over the back row, tying PLU's Bjorkman for match-high honors with 22 digs. Davis added 15 digs and three block assists for Whitman.
- PLU -
