EUGENE, Ore. – The Northwest Christian University volleyball team finally took down a Cascade Collegiate Conference match on Saturday night, and they did it behind the strength of eleven service aces in a 25-18, 21-25, 25-17, 31-29 victory over The Evergreen State University.
Tessa Greatwood was a driving force for the Beacons (5-14, 1-10 CCC), collecting three aces and three blocks, along with ten kills as she hit .320 on the night. Cassie Bishop also had three aces and registered another double-double with 16 kills and 16 digs. Emily Miller hit .213 for the evening and collected 14 kills, her fourth straight double-digit kill performance.
The Beacon offense was fueled by strong setting as NCU collected 46 assists, against just 34 for the Geoducks. Taylor Hatleberg led the way with a career-high 25 assists and seven digs while Whitney Hoff registered 18 assists and nine digs. Mercedes Leclaire had 18 digs for the Beacons before going out late in the fourth set with an injury. Kayla Hansen was forced to sub in for the Libero, and the freshman middle blocker played admirably in the back row during a critical end of the extended fourth set, collecting four digs. Hansen added six kills on the night.
Evergreen State (1-18, 1-10 CCC), who defeated NCU at home earlier this season for their only victory of the year, was led by Jazzmin Garcia with ten kills. Meghan De La Rosa added 28 assists, 12 digs, two blocks and six kills, hitting .333 with an effective dump set at the net.
Chantal Petkus collected a match-high 25 digs for the Clams, who were out-dug 75-74 on the night. Evergreen did out-block the home team by a 9-5 advantage, getting six blocks (four solo) from LeAsia Jones. Jones added nine kills, hitting .412.
Head Coach Mike Gaffaney said, “This was a huge win for us. At the beginning of the season I never would have thought I’d be looking at 1-10 in conference and feel so pleased, but it’s the little improvements and the small steps that we are focusing on and this was a step in the right direction. The team has worked really hard, and put in an extra practice today before the match. We went in wanting to avoid the unforced errors that have really hurt us lately and I think we did a good job of that.”
NCU will look to make it two-in-a-row on Monday as they play host to Multnomah University at 7:00 pm.