Nov. 4, 2010
Box Score
SEATTLE, Wash. - Hampered by a season-low hitting percentage of .107, Western Washington University saw its eight-match winning streak snapped, falling to Seattle Pacific University, 20-25, 25-19, 25-15, 25-18, in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference volleyball match Thursday between two nationally ranked teams at Royal Brougham Pavilion on the SPU campus.
The defeat means the Vikings, ranked No.13 in this week's American Volleyball Coaches Association/NCAA Division II Top 25 Poll and No.2 in the West Region, fall to 16-3 overall and slip into second place in the GNAC at 13-2.
Seattle Pacific, rated No.18 nationally and No.3 in the West Region, improved to 22-2 overall and took a half-game lead in the GNAC at 14-2. Lindsey Wodrich led the Falcons with a match-high 14 kills.
Middle blocker Emily Jepsen (Jr., Kennewick/Kamiakin) paced Western with 11 kills and outside hitter Marlayna Geary (So., Tacoma/Bellarmine Prep) added 10, but each of them also had seven errors. In all, the Vikings had 27 hitting errors, 18 of them in the last two sets.
"We came out strong, but as the match went on, we deviated from our game plan and lost our assignments," said Western coach Diane Flick. "We were tested on the road, and we got an incomplete."
Western, which snapped a 16-match SPU winning streak on Oct. 9, claimed the opening set, its 25th straight. Trailing, 7-5, the Vikings went on a run of seven straight points to take a 12-7 lead, and the Falcons never got closer than three after that.
The set streak ended in the second frame, as SPU broke away from a 13-13 tie with a 9-1 run to take a 22-14 advantage. Wodrich had three kills in the burst.
The Falcons then took control early in each of the last two sets, opening up a 9-4 advantage in the final frame and never leading by less than four points after that.
Libero Allison Gotz (Sr., Bothell/Archbishop Murphy) had a match-high 24 digs for the Vikings.
Western is at Montana State Billings on Saturday (7 p.m.) for a GNAC counter.
