Written by Student Assistant Christian Bond

TACOMA, Wash. – For only the second time this season the 25th-ranked Pacific Lutheran University volleyball team dropped a match inside Olson Gymnasiun, seeing its 10-match win streak come to a halt on Friday night in a nailbiting 3-0 *27-25, 27-25, 30-28) setback to Northwest Conference rival Pacific University.

PLU (17-4, 11-2 NWC) trailed 24-21 in the first set before putting together a 4-0 run to take the lead 25-24. Pacific (16-6, 9-5 NWC) would answer, closing out the set with a 3-0 run of their own. It was tied at 25 in the second set when the Boxers were able to close it out with two final points. The final set saw 14 ties before Pacific found a way to pick up the win in a marathon 30-28 set win to secure the match by the thinnest of margins.

"Pacific played well. You have to give credit to them," Head coach Kevin Aoki said. "I didn't think we were that bad, just that they outplayed us. They played good. They passed the ball well, they had some good kills, they were in system a lot so give credit to them."

Chloe Epker was outstanding for the Lutes on Friday night. The senior had 18 kills, while adding 22 digs and two blocks to her stat line. Isabella Zubrod and Mackenzie Harris attacked well, each finishing with eight kills. Danielle Skibiel had a nice night with seven kills.

Defensively, the Lutes were led by libero Caylie Shiramizu. The Honolulu native had a season-high 30 digs on the night. Gabrielle Alley kept the ball off the floor with 19 digs. Kiana Calles was good defensively with 14 digs, but was phenomenal on offense. Calles had a remarkable 40 assists on the night, but it wasn't enough.

"It's going to be like that all the way out," Aoki said. "Any team is not going to just hand the match over to us. That made their season for them. Our upcoming three games are going to be the same way. We got to expect that level of play from everybody else."

PLU hosts Willamette University on Saturday with a late start time of 7 p.m.