Sept. 6, 2007
Box Score
LACEY, Wash. - Libero Courtney Schneider (Sr., Snohomish) broke two conference records as Western Washington University opened Great Northwest Athletic Conference play with a 30-13, 30-15, 30-14 sweep at Saint Martin's University on Thursday at SMU Pavilion.
Western improved to 5-3 overall. It was also the GNAC opener for the Saints, who dropped to 0-10 overall and have now lost 22 straight over the last two seasons.
Schneider had a match-high 22 digs for the Vikings, establishing a GNAC standard with her 58th consecutive double-digit contest. That also gave her a GNAC-best 1,385 career digs in conference matches.
Schneider previously set school and overall league career marks for digs. Her four-year career total stands at 2,045, which ranks 19th nationally in NCAA Division II.
Western outside hitter Emily Castro (Sr., Bellingham/Meridian) and middle blocker Tiana Roma (Jr., Edmonds/Edmonds-Woodway) had just one error between them in 32 attempts while having nine and eight kills, respectively. The Vikings hit .352 as a team with just seven errors.
"We just had a good, solid, pretty much error-free performance," said Western coach Diane Flick of the match which lasted just 78 minutes.
Middle blocker Angie Alvord (Jr., Laurel/Meridian) and outside hitter Marissa Hill (Jr., North Bend/Mount Si) each had six blocks for the Vikings, and outside hitter Jaime Anderson (Sr., SeaTac/Mount Rainer) added seven kills, 10 digs and three service aces.
Western, which never trailed in the match, got off to a 14-4 lead in game one and had an18-3 advantage in game two. With Saint Martin's within three points at 14-11 in game three, the Vikings closed out the match by scoring 16 of the last 19 points to close out the match.
Western next travels to Monmouth, Ore., for a league match Saturday (1 p.m.) with Western Oregon University.
