CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The Pacific Lutheran University volleyball team was unable to engineer an upset of ninth-ranked Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Thursday evening, falling 3-0 (25-21, 26-24, 25-14) to the hosts in the opening round of the 2025 NCAA Division III Tournament. 

Thursday's first round clash featured two of the hottest teams in Division III. The 2025 Northwest Conference Tournament Champion Lutes (16-10) entered the match having won nine of its last 10 while the New England Women's & Men's Athletic Conference regular season and tournament champion Engineers (28-3) owned a 19-match win streak.

Host MIT ripped off the opening four points of the game but the visiting Lutes weren't intimidated, pulling to within a point at 7-6 on a block from Alexis Eggert and Ayre Takamoto. It was a scrappy set the rest of the way with the Engineers ultimately leading wire-to-wire for the 25-21 victory.
 
Pacific Lutheran tallied the first two points of the second set and used a 5-0 run to build an 11-6 advantage. That spurt included a Julissa Pernsteiner kill to get things rolling while getting a pair of blocks from Pernsteiner and Clare Freberg. 

MIT seized its first lead of the set at 17-16 but the Lutes tied the set on a Pernsteiner kill. The asset would be tied again at 20, 21, 22, 23, and 24 before the Engineers got a pair of kills to escape with the 26-24 set victory. 
 
The Lutes staked six of the first eight points in the third set but ran out of gas with MIT scoring 20 of the final 24 points to secure the match win and advance to the second round where the will face Franklin & Marshall College tomorrow night after the Diplomats dispatched Williams College 3-1 earlier in the day.

"It was an awesome season. This team certainly turned it around the second half of the year," said Head Coach Kevin Aoki.

"Special recognition goes to our three seniors Haley, Jordan, and Bailey for their amazing leadership on and off the court."

Eggert paced the Lute offense with 11 kills on just 22 attacks, owning a .455 attack percentage while also collecting four blocks. Shaela Allen-Greggs was the second Lute with double digit kills, netting 10. Ayre Takamoto had a double-double with 30 assists and 10 kills while Macy Matsushima matched Takamato defensively with 10 digs. 

Thursday was the final match for seniors Jordan Freer, Haley Goto, and Bailey Johnson who all saw action in the tournament match. The 2025 senior class finished their careers by winning 70 matches over the last four years, including 51 in NWC play. They made three trips to the NWC Tournament finals, won two NWC Tournament titles, one NWC regular season crown, and made two trips to the NCAA Division III Tournament.