PORTLAND, Ore. – The Multnomah University women's volleyball team played one of their closest matches of the year but still fell in three straight sets to Northwest Christian (16-25, 20-25, 25-27), on the road on Saturday afternoon.
MU moves to 1-10 overall on the season, falling to 0-10 in the Cascade Collegiate Conference, while the win marks the third straight CCC win for the Beacons as they improve to 10-7, 3-7 CCC.
How it Happened: Both teams started out evenly in the first set by a 12-2 run gave Northwest Christian the momentum to take set one 25-16, the most lopsided set of the night for the Lions.
In the second set, the Lions jumped out with three early points to take a 4-1 but couldn't hang on in a set that saw three lead changes and five ties. With the score at 17-15 in favor of the Lions, the Beacons scored six consecutive points to earn the lead for good.
As the final set of the night began, NCU looked as if they would have the easy sweep finding themselves a 21-9 lead late in the set. The Lions wouldn't let go without a fight stringing together their longest score streak of the season with 10 straight points that included four kills by
Patty Batoon and two aces by
Marissa Rhodes to come within two points, 21-19.
The Beacons forced a 24-21 lead but allowed another three straight by the Lions to tie it up again before NCU would finally put the match away.
By the Numbers: Neither team had a great hitting night as the Beacons led in attacking percentage at .176 slightly better than the Lions at .114. NCU led in kills 37 to 32.
Rhodes had a career night for the Lions racking up a match high 31 assists to go along with two aces and four digs. Batoon led the attack with 16 kills while
Miranda Halverson added 10 kills and a team high 12 digs.
Kiana Miller and
Miranda Schmillen tallied 11 and nine digs respectively.
For the Beacons, Cassidy Winters totaled 14 kills on 20 attempts and Chandler Gabrio added nine kills. Laurie Salness finished with 18 assists followed by teammate Marsha Poischbeg who had 16 assists. Haley Damian had the match high in digs with 16.
Coming up next: The Lions will have a short week as they prepare to host New Hope Christian College on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. on Jim Skagen Court.
