SPOKANE, Wash. — Last season the Pacific Lutheran University volleyball squad had its senior night spoiled by Whitworth University. This year, the Lutes returned the favor, denying the Pirates the opportunity to win the Northwest Conference title on Saturday night by earning the 3-1 (27-25, 21-25, 25-23, 25-15) road win at Whitworth Fieldhouse.
PLU's victory puts next weekend's NWC Tournament closer to home, with University of Puget Sound clinching the regular season title and hosting rights at the expense of the Pirates.Â
"This was just an incredible night for the team, Under the circumstances of the situation of not having played well in the last two weeks and to come to Spokane and beat a very good Whitworth team says a lot about our team," said Head Coach
Kevin Aoki.
"Now we get to play them again in the semifinals at the conference tournament at UPS."
The opening set was a tight affair with the score tied at 25 before a
Shaela Allen-Greggs kill and a Whitworth attack error gave the visiting Lutes the 27-25 set win. Whitworth leveled the match in the second set, scoring three of the final four points for the 25-21 victory.
PLU trailed 19-12 in the third but dug deep, scoring the final six points of the set to pill out the 25-23 win.
Mary Magoun and
Alexis Eggert combined for a pair of blocks during that run while also getting kills from
Je T'aime Paio and
Alexis Eggert.
PLU never trailed in the fourth set. Tied at 1, PLU scored eight of the next 10 and tallying the final six points of the set to secure the 25-15 set win.
Savanna Colliado had two aces during the final run with an
Ayre Takamoto kill cementing the victory to shift the NWC Tournament to Tacoma.
Allen-Greggs led the Lutes with 15 kills, boasting a .349 attack percentage while Eggert had a dozen kills.
Julissa Pernsteiner and Paio added 10. Takamoto had 38 assists and 23 digs with
Macy Matsushima leading the way with 32 digs.Â
The Lutes open the NWC Tournament on Friday, playing second seed Whitworth at Puget Sound's Memorial Fieldhouse.
Â
