WALLA WALLA, Wash. – All match long the Whitman College volleyball team battled visiting George Fox University at Sherwood Athletic Center Friday evening, forging a tie score with the Bruins on 27 different occasions. The Missionaries, however, fell just short on points at the end of each game in a 3-0 Northwest Conference loss in front of more than 250 Whitman fans.
George Fox (3-6, 1-2 NWC) rallied for the final six points in a 26-24 opening-game win, before stealing the second game, 25-22, with the final three points. Whitman (2-8, 0-4) led the third 20-19 but the Bruins notched six of the next seven points for a match-clinching 25-21 victory.
Other than game 1, when the Missionaries held multiple leads of as many as seven points, most of the match was spent clawing back into the fray with the Bruins. A third of the way through game two, for example, Whitman trailed by six but rallied with a 6-0 run behind a pair of
Megan Henry kills, an
Abby Seethoff service aces, and blocks from the combinations of
Kaileah Akker,
Katie Sisson and Henry. Fox scratched back in front but never led by more than two until those final three points to eke out the win.
Game 3's early, but small, deficit was rebounded from quickly and Whitman and the Bruins then served up 13 ties, the last coming at 20-20. A short burst from the visitors installed a 24-20 advantage over the Missionaries but a
Brooke Randall kill gave the home team hope. Unfortunately for Whitman the Bruins' Erin Sprowls was able to notch her 12th kill of the night on the next point to dim the lights.
Natalia Zea came away with eight kills to go along with three service aces, and one block assist, to lead Whitman in scoring. Seethoff led the attack with 10 kills and added six digs. Henry finished with seven kills, four digs and three block assists.
Defensively for the Missionaries,
Hannah Linsenmayer picked up a match-high 21 digs, leading three other teammates --
Codie Conching (15),
Anna Dawson (11) and
Cherokee Washington (10) -- into double figures.
Whitman will try to pick up its first conference win of the season when it hits the road for its next matches, heading West to take on Linfield College on Friday, Oct. 2 followed by the short trip to Pacific (Ore.) University the next night.
