Contact: Mark Albanese, Director of Sports Communication

TACOMA, Wash. - The Pacific Lutheran University volleyball squad opened up its homestand with a bang on Friday night, downing Northwest Conference rival Linfield College 3-1 (25-23, 20-25, 25-20, 25-22) inside Olson Gymnasium.

The opening set was hotly contested with Gabrielle Alley and Danielle Skibiel collecting to kills to turn a 23-23 deadlock into a 25-23 Lute victory. The Wildcats (6-7, 1-6 NWC) answered in set two, building an 8-2 edge en route to a 25-20 win to level the contest.

Linfield grabbed the first three points of the third before the Lutes (7-8, 5-2 NWC) battled back, seizing the lead with five straight points. PLU never trailed the rest of the way, claiming the final three points, including a decisive kill from Chloe Epker for the 25-20 set win. The fourth was deadlocked at 22 but kills from Mackenzie Harris and Isabella Zubrod sandwiched around a Linfield attack error gave the Lutes the 25-22 win to wrap up the match in four sets.

"It was great to pull out the win tonight," said Head Coach Kevin Aoki. "It was a great battle. We worked this week on closing games and it was evident."

Zubrod paced the Lutes with 13 kills with Epker finishing with nine. Kiana Calles had a double-double with 25 assists and 10 digs as did Madi Collier who tallied 14 digs and 12 assists. Caylie Shiramizu added 29 digs to lead PLU while Harris collected seven blocks.

"We need to continue to improve and get better every match."

PLU returns to the court on Saturday afternoon, closing its homestand against Pacific University at 5 p.m. inside Olson Gymnasium.