WALLA WALLA, Wash. – For the second straight night the Whitman College women's volleyball team treated the crowd to a five-set thriller, this time rallying from two sets down but coming up just short in a 25-19, 25-23, 23-25, 21-25, 15-10 loss to Willamette, Saturday in Northwest Conference action at the Sherwood Athletic Center.
 
Senior Codie Conching recorded a double-double with 17 kills and 13 digs for the Blues who fall to 5-5 and 1-1 in league play. Tate Cadang had another spectacular night with a career-best 49 assists, along with fellow first-year Rebecca Hall who went off in the fourth and fifth sets and recorded 11 kills and nine digs. Megan Henry had a season-high 14 kills and Claire McCarthy added 23 digs.

Willamette's Jaiden Mason led her team with 42 assists while also adding 16 digs. Natalie Klotz recorded a double-double with 15 kills and 19 digs.

Willamette got out to a hot start in the first set, taking a 5-0 lead and forcing the Blues to call their first timeout early on. Kills from Henry and Kalli Dickey put the Blues on the board and helped cut the lead to three. The Blues knotted up the score 15-15 before the Bearcats gained momentum and took the first set 25-19.
 
The second set started out similar to the first, with the Blues digging themselves into a 12-3 hole. Whitman began its comeback, but the Bearcats pulled away at the last second to snag the second set 25-23 and take a 2-0 lead on the night.
 
Neither team established a sizeable lead to open up the third set, until Whitman pushed the lead to 19-14. The Bearcats responded with an offensive surge to close the gap just as Whitman was looking to pull away. Willamette pulled within two points at 22-20 but couldn't finish their comeback as the Blues took set three 25-23.
 
The beginning of the fourth set panned out almost identically to the third, with both teams keeping the score close. Hall went off for a near double-double, with most of her kills coming in big ways and in big moments. A nearly 30-second rally halfway through the set was put to an end with a huge kill by Brooke Randall, who had eight kills on the night. The Bearcats didn't give up as they found their groove and cut the lead back to three. The Blues avoided Willamette's run and took the fourth set to even the match 2-2.

The Blues nearly used all of their momentum to their advantage in the fifth set as they hoped to make it three in a row. Unfortunately Willamette found what had worked for them in the first two sets and took the fifth to stave off the Blues.
 
The Blues head on the road next week to Oregon to take on Pacific University and George Fox University for two more Northwest Conference matchups. Whitman first faces Pacific on Friday, Sept. 21 at 7:00 p.m.