WALLA WALLA, Wash. – Visiting Pacific Lutheran University used an 11-point run spanning the end of the fourth and beginning of the fifth games to scratch out a come-from-behind 3-2 victory Saturday night against host Whitman College in women's volleyball action at the Sherwood Athletics Center.
Whitman (8-11, 4-6 NWC) moved out to a 2-1 lead in games after three before the 17th-ranked Lutes (15-4, 8-2) battled back late in the fourth to pull even with a 25-19 victory.
Six straight points from PLU closed out that Game 4 victory and the momentum continued into the fifth where the Lutes started the deciding game with a 5-0 run that included a pair of service aces. Whitman continued to battle despite the deficit but simply wasn't able to string together more than two consecutive points in the 15-6 loss.
Stringing points together was a difficulty for both teams most of the night.
Whitman captured Game 1, 25-22, winning the final three points and finishing on an
Abby Seethoff service ace. Prior to that small run the two teams combined to accumulate single side-out only points 12 times.
Regardless of the 11-0 run spanning the penultimate and final games of the night, Pacific Lutheran put together its best game in the second where it never trailed after taking the original service point away from the Missionaries.
Game 3 was more like the opening contest. Seventeen times one team would take a point only to surrender the ensuing point. Twice, once when trailing 13-11 and the other when leading 18-17, Whitman notched four-point runs to help retake the match lead with a 25-21 victory.
The point-for-point battle continued into Game 4 until Pacific Lutheran wrested the lead from Whitman behind a 6-0 streak that gave the Lutes an 18-16 advantage. Whitman tied the score at 19-19 but the next 11 points would fall in PLU's favor to help the visitors close out the match victory.
Seethoff and
Shae Kanakaole paced the Whitman attack over the five-game night. Kanakaole finished with a team-best 14 kills, and 25 digs, while Seethoff tallied 13 kills to go along with four service aces, 10 digs and 1.5 blocks.
Natalia Zea,
Megan Bafus and Kanakaole spearheaded the Missionaries net defense with each coming away with a total of 3.0 blocks. For the night Whitman held a 14.0-10.0 blocking advantage.
Lucy Capron racked up a match-high 24 kills to lead Pacific Lutheran's attack.
The Missionaries will try to bounce back from the weekend's pair of five-game losses with a home match Wednesday, Oct. 22 against Whitworth University which is tied atop the league standings with PLU. Wednesday's match against the Pirates is slated for a 6 p.m. start at the Athletics Center.
