SALEM, Ore.  Put to the test, Whitman College's volleyball team scratched out a 3-2 Northwest Conference win Friday evening at Willamette University, finally quieting a raucous home crowd at Cone Field House while extending their win streak to four and keeping their conference record unblemished.

Nearly 600 fans were cheering on the home team but it was Whitman (6-5, 3-0 NWC) that pulled out the 25-18, 19-25, 25-23, 22-25, 15-8 win over the Bearcats (3-8, 1-2).

The dominating fifth-game win obviously clinched the match, but the grinding tone of Whitman's victory would be cemented in the third when it would come back from an 8-0 deficit to eventually take the game by two points.

"Willamette put us in some tough situations," reflected head coach Matt Helm after the match. "We did a good job of making adjustments to their attacking schemes, though,"

Understatement.

The unanswered run to start the third was actually a continuation of the second when Willamette would seal the game victory by notching the final three points for a six-point win.

Somewhere in that third game, however, Whitman may have found its season-defining moment.

Sure, Willamette would -- buoyed by its home crowd -- come back to win the fourth to only briefly avoid defeat, but the cast had already been set: Whitman wasn't going to ever feel like it was out of a match.

"That was the most competitive match we've played this season," said Katie Sisson who led all attackers with 15 kills. "We definitely had to earn this. That quick start in the fifth got us rolling again, and then we got Miranda (Taylor) to serve us out."

Taylor, indeed, played a big role at the end of the match. Though Whitman never trailed in the fifth and deciding game, the Bearcats had pulled even at 6-6 when Whitman earned a sideout and rotated Taylor back behind the line to size up her deadly serve.

Eight unanswered points later, including three of Taylor's four service aces on the night, it was only a matter of time before the match-deciding point would find the floor, provided by Shae Kanakaole who ended her evening trailing only Sisson in total kills, racking up 13.

Deflecting a pat on the back Taylor commended, "our outside hitters tonight -- Katie and Shae -- for continuing to just put the ball away." Taylor also watched her blockers "get progressively better and better throughout the match."

While Taylor commented that the victory "showed a lot of mental toughness from our team," Helm would simply call it a "team win," describing how different players stepped up when someone needed to do the stepping up.

The quiet assassin for Whitman in the victory was setter Anna Dawson who dished out 41 assists including at least eight to four different teammates.

Whitman will put its win streak and clean conference record on the line Saturday at Linfield College in a 5 p.m. match.