Box Score SALEM, Ore. - Taylor Knight continued to lift her play, drilling a match and career-high 20 kills but it wasn't enough to pace the Whitman College women's volleyball team to its first win in a four-set defeat at Willamette in Northwest Conference action on Saturday night. Set scores were 21-25, 25-16, 25-21, 25-16.

The Blues (0-12, 0-6 NWC) rode the shoulders of Knight all evening to the tune of 74 swings. She also tallied five digs and got in on three blocks. Megan Suka was a dominant force at the net with a career-high six blocks and Brooke Valentine equaled her career-high of 25 digs, a mark she set just 24 hours earlier.

Natalie Klotz delivered a double double for the Bearcats with 19 kills and 13 digs with Shayla Sate recording a match-best 26 digs.

Whitman took the early lead with a quality opening set comeback. The Blues trailed 12-7 after a Brooke Lohuis kill but turned things around quickly. They went on a 9-1 run across two Willamette timeouts to take a 20-15 lead. Knight had back-to-back kills and got in a block with Sophia Dominitz as Whitman closed in on the win. Willamette shaved the deficit to one point but Elyse Benavides capped the win with one of her six kills.

Sets two and three got away from the Blues as the Bearcats took a one-set lead. In set one, a kill from Benavides and a service ace from Valentine shaved the lead to 15-14, but a 10-2 set-closing run for the Bearcats evened the match. Set three saw a flurry of Knight kills erase a deficit as the Blues took a late 20-19 lead. Down the stretch, it were the Bearcats who put the points on the board, winning the set and the match one set later.

The Blues return to the comfy confines of the Sherwood Center for a nice five-game home stand. First up is Lewis & Clark on Friday, Oct. 11 at 7:00 p.m.