PORTLAND – One night after clinching the outright 2013 Northwest Conference championship, the 15th-ranked Pacific Lutheran volleyball team closed out the regular season schedule with a road sweep of Lewis & Clark at Pamplin Sports Center.
Pacific Lutheran improved to 19-5 overall and 15-1 in NWC play, sweeping the match by set scores of 25-19, 25-23 and 25-16. Lewis & Clark ends its season with a 6-16 overall record, 5-11 in the NWC. With the NWC's automatic bid to next weekend's NAIA West Regional Tournament, the Lutes now await word from the NCAA about their upcoming matchup. The NCAA Div. III Volleyball Selection Show is schedule for Monday at 11 a.m. EST.
Lucy Capron tallied a match-high 14 kills for the Lutes and added nine digs to fall one short of a double-double. Amber Aguiar recorded 19 digs and is now seven shy of tying Rachelle Snowden's school record of 583, set in 1993. Samantha North finished with 30 assists, and Haley Urdahl totaled 14 digs and eight kills.
Kataleya Milan led Lewis & Clark with 10 kills and added 14 digs, but the Pioneers' top hitter also committed 10 attack errors to finish the match with a .000 hitting percentage. Kelsie Dorpat tallied 21 assists, while Alexe Navarro totaled 11 digs and Sydney Roth added 10 digs.
Lewis & Clark scored the first three points of the night, but Pacific Lutheran scored the next six and hardly looked back in the opening set. The Lutes stretched their lead to as many as 12 points when a Taylor Komagome service ace made it 23-11 before the Pioneers rallied for eight straight to pull within four. It was too little, too late, for the Pios, however, as a service error set the stage for the set point kill by North.
The second set was the closest of the three, as Lewis & Clark again took an early three-point lead and the Lutes again responded with six consecutive points. This time the Pioneers came back to tie it at 12-12 and pulled within one point at 21-20. Three more for the Lutes gave them a set point advantage, but the Pios fought it off three straight times to prompt a PLU timeout before North and Bethany Huston combined for the set-clinching block.
Lewis & Clark briefly led 5-3 in the third set, but the Lutes scored the next nine in a row and 14 of the next 16 to take a 17-7 lead following five straight errors by the Pioneers. The Lutes coasted from there to the 25-16 win, clinching the set and match on one final L&C error. Pacific Lutheran limited the Pioneers to a -.026 attack percentage in the final set, with eight kills and nine errors on 38 chances.
The Lutes have now won back-to-back outright NWC titles, combining to go 29-3 in conference play the last two years. With 19 wins this season, PLU will need at least one win at the regional tournament to reach 20 victories for the third straight year and seventh time in the past eight years.
