The Pioneers came back from down two sets to earn a 24-26, 18-25, 25-10,
25-20, 15-11 road victory at Pacific Friday night to remain in
second place in the NWC. Margaret Dowling had 17 kills for the
Pioneers.
After Pacific appeared to have control with a two sets to none
lead, Lewis & Clark stormed back to sweep the next three sets
and steal a five-set thriller from the Boxers, 24-26, 18-25, 25-10,
25-20, 15-11, in Northwest Conference volleyball action at the
Pacific Athletic Center.
After edging the Pioneers in the first set, Pacific won the
second set convicingly and appeared ready to cruise to the victory.
Lewis & Clark, however, found their offensive stride in a
dominating third set victory, hitting .400 in the stanza, before
edging the Boxers in the fourth and fifth sets.
With the victory, the Pioneers (10-8, 5-2 NWC) maintained a tie
for second place in the conference with Pacific Lutheran, while the
Boxers (5-10, 4-3 NWC) drops into a three-way for fourth with
Linfield and George Fox. The ten victories are the most by a
Pioneer team since the 1994 season with nine matches still
remaining in the season.
Margaret Dowling (freshman, Burlingame, Calif.) led Lewis &
Clark with 17 kills and 18 digs. Jessamy Holland (junior, Honolulu,
Hawaii) added 13 kills and Kelsey Clark (senior, Eagle Creek, Ore.)
finished with 10 kills. Andrea Chase (senior, Santa Rosa, Calif.)
added 26 assists while Melody Kayser (senior, Eugene, Ore.) had 20.
Pacific came out on top of a close first set that saw 11 ties
and saw neither team lead by more than three points. Pacific owned
a 24-22 lead late before a pair of attack errors allowed the
Pioneers to tie it at 24-24. Joanna Delanty¹s (Sr., Washougal,
Wash.) kill set up the Boxers for the victory on a L&C attack
error at 26-24. The Boxers posted a match-high .263 attack
percentage in the second set and, outside of a 1-0 deficit at the
beginning of the set, never trailed. A Dunn kill and a Pioneers'
attack error gave Pacific a 9-6 lead and Takashima's service ace
made it a 14-10 advantage. Lewis & Clark came no closer than
three points as the Boxers went ahead 20-15 on a Johnson service
ace built their ending seven-point lead on a pair of Pioneers'
attack errors.
Lewis & Clark came out on fire in the third set, allowing
Pacific just one point off of their own serve the entire frame. The
Pioneers owned an 11-4 lead on a Kelsey Clark kill and Kelsey
Neussl served five straight winners to build a 17-5 advantage as
they went on to the 15-point victory. The Pioneers posted a .400
attack percentage in the set, while the Boxers had just seven kills
against seven errors.
Pacific opened the fourth set with a 3-0 lead, but traded leads
over the first third of the set with the Pioneers. The Boxers went
ahead 10-7 on a Gollehon kill and led 12-9 on a Dunn kill before a
kill by Katherine Fiedler's (freshman, San Diego, Calif.) kill
started a string of seven unanswered points that gave L&C a
20-13 lead that put the set out of reach. Pacific came back to
within four, 21-17, on an attack error before the teams traded
points to give the Pioneers the victory. Both teams battled through
the first part of the fifth set, with the Pioneers taking the 8-6
lead at the side change on a Dowling kill. The Boxers tied it at
9-9 on a Dunn kill and again at 10-10 on Gollehon¹s final kill
of the night, before a ball handling error and a Lou Ohki
(sophomore, Winton, Calif.) service ace gave the Pioneers the lead
for good.
Pacific will finish off the first half of the Northwest
Conference schedule on the road, traveling to No. 19 Pacific
Lutheran on Saturday. Lewis & Clark also travels to Tacoma,
facing No. 13 Puget Sound.
Story contributed by Pacific University's Sports Information
Department.
Listen to an
audio replay of the match (download the .wma file then listen
to it on your computer using Windows Media Player).
