Sept. 11, 2004
BELLINGHAM, Wash. - Middle blockers Meghan Evoy (Sr., Olympia/Capital) and Kristy Carstensen (Sr., Puyallup) each had 22 kills and Diane Flick earned her 100th career coaching victory as Western Washington University defeated Northwest Nazarene University, 30-18, 30-24, 28-30, 30-18, in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference volleyball opener for both schools Friday at Sam Carver Gymnasium.
The Vikings, No.15 in this week's AVCA/NCAA Division II Top 25, improved to 5-3 with their fourth straight victory. Northwest Nazarene, which was led by the 21 kills of outside hitter Lindsay Miller, lost for only the second time in seven matches.
Flick, in her fifth season as head coach, has a career record of 100-22. She is just the second coach in school history to reach 100 victories.
"It's a tribute to the people who have been in the program," Flick said. "I've been fortunate in the young women I've been able to coach, this is as much their 100th victory as it is mine."
The triumph extended Western's winning streak in the GNAC to 55 matches, the longest active conference streak in NCAA II and the fourth-longest in that division's history. The Vikings need four more wins to match the third-longest string, with the record being 77 set by West Texas A&M from 1999 to 2003.
Western has now won 43 of its last 44 home matches, including the last 18, which is six shy of the school record.
The Vikings trailed only at 2-1 in the first game, in which Evoy had seven kills, and led wire-to-wire in the second. In the third game, the Crusaders used a run of five straight points to take a 25-21 lead and held on to win, but Western, behind the eight kills of Carstensen, came back in the final frame, grabbing a 15-9 lead and extending the margin from there.
Evoy had 22 kills and just two errors in 38 attempts, an attack efficiency of .526. Brianna Murray (Sr., Everett/Cascade) had a match-high 25 digs for the Vikings.
"Our middles are definitely the key to our success," Flick said. "They have to perform to open up things for our younger players at different positions."
Western hosts Seattle U. (3-6, 1-0) on Saturday (7 p.m.) in another GNAC counter.
