TACOMA, Wash. — The Pacific Lutheran University volleyball team dropped a pair of nailbiters on Friday to open the 2023 season at the Puget Sound Premiere. The Lutes fell 3-2 (25-17, 23-25, 20-25, 25-22, 15-9) in the opener to College of Saint Benedict before stumbling 3-1 (27-25, 25-10, 20-25, 25-12) to Eastern University inside the University of Puget Sound's Memorial Fieldhouse. 

"We fought pretty hard today and learned a lot about ourselves today," said Head Coach Kevin Aoki. "The two teams we played were very good teams and that is what we want early in the season. We will continue to improve as we mix with the different line ups to see what our personnel is capable of doing. This is one of the toughest fields we have ever in this tourney that we go host."
 
The Bennies (1-0) conceded the opening point of match one but scored six of the next seven and led the rest of the opening set, winning 25-17. The two teams traded leads early in the second set before the Lutes scored three straight, getting kills from Shaela Allen-Greggs and Elle Thomas to take an 11-8 lead. PLU (0-2) never looked back the rest of the set, prevailing 25-23 to even the match. 
 
PLU scored eight of the first 11 points in the third, getting an ace from Elle Thomas and two more off the serve of Halle Hetzler to take a 9-2 advantage. The Lutes played with the lead the rest of the set with consecutive kills from Thomas giving PLU the 25-20 set win.
 
The Bennies took the fourth set 25-22 to force a decisive fifth set.
 
PLU scored three of the first four in the fifth set but the Bennies battled back, tying the set at 4-4. The set was tied at 5, 6, and 7 before St. Benedict scored three straight to take a 10-7 lead. CSB led the rest of the way, coming away with the 15-9 victory to secure the match. 
 
Baylee Johnson led the Lutes with 20 kills while Thomas and Claire Hindman both finished with 12. Olivia Evaro racked up 42 assists and 11 digs with Hetzler netting a team-high 46 digs and four aces. 
 
The second match of the day was another back and forth affair that ultimately saw Eastern— an NCAA qualifier a year ago— prevail. The Lutes ripped off the opening seven points of the match off the serve of Elle Thomas, including a pair of aces. PLU led 20-13 on a Thomas kill but the pesky Eagles (2-0) battled back, scoring eight of the next 11 to close within a point at 22-21. It was a nip and tuck affair the rest of the way with a pair of kills ultimately giving Eastern the 27-25 set win.
 
Eastern scored 14 of the first 15 in set two, recording six aces during the opening run to cruise to a 25-10 win. The Lutes opened up a 9-5 lead in the third set and never looked back to collect a 25-20 win. PLU fell behind early in the fourth set and was unable to recover with Eastern taking the set 25-12 to earn the match victory.
 
Johnson paced the Lute offense for the second straight match, netting 13 kills with Thomas adding seven. Evaro had 35 assists and 11 digs while Hetzler finished with a team-best 36 digs which puts the school record holder over 2,000 for her career.
 
PLU concludes the tournament tomorrow with a match at 11 a.m. against Adrian College and a 5 p.m. showdown with host University of Puget Sound.