Box ScoreSPOKANE, Wash. – Whitworth put together an exceptional hitting night while Pacific again struggled to get into an offensive groove as the Boxers fell in three sets to the Pirates, 25-19, 25-11, 25-18, in Northwest Conference volleyball action at the Whitworth Fieldhouse.
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Pacific (5-8, 1-3 NWC) finished the night hitting .141, but cooled after hitting .258 in the first set.Â
Haley Bedell (Jr., Bothell, Wash.) led Pacific with nine kills.Â
Hannah Herbert (Jr., Hillsboro, Ore.) added eight kill while
Una Areta (So., Kent, Wash.) finished with six.Â
Lia Zablan (So., Ewa Beach, Hawaii) had three aces to go along with a team-high 10 assists.
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Whitworth (9-4, 2-2 NWC) hit .393 on the night, led by a 13-kill performance by Nicole Leonard. Cassandra Mendoza added 12 kills against no errors for a .706 hitting percentage.Â
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Whitworth opened the match with a 5-0 lead before the Boxers clawed back, tying the first set 12-12 on
Kelly Wahl's (Fr., Richland, Wash.) kills and took the short-lived 13-12 advantage on a Whitworth attack error. The Pirates charged right back, going back up 17-14 on Cassandra Mendoza's kill. Pacific would not score again on their own serve as Whitworth cruised to the 25-19 win.
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After a close start to the second set, Whitworth put together a quartet of runs that allowed the Pirates to outscore the Boxers 20-6 the rest of the way. An attack error gave Pacific a 5-4 lead before the first five-point put the Pirates ahead 9-5. Three Pacific attack errors bolstered a six-point run that put Whitworth up 16-7 and two more four-point runs allowed the Pirates the 25-11 win.
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Whitworth never trailed in the third set, but the Boxers kept things close until late. The Pirates opened up the 10-5 advantage on an attack error before back-to-back service aces by Zablan tied the set at 12-12. Whitworth recovered with a 9-2 run, punctuated by three Pacific attack errors, that proved the difference in the 25-18 victory.
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Pacific returns home to host the Tacoma schools for Homecoming weekend. The Boxers will host Puget Sound on Friday and Pacific Lutheran on Saturday, with the start scheduled for 7 p.m., both nights. Live stats and video will be available at GoBoxers.com.
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