Box Score
EUGENE, Ore. – The Northwest Christian University volleyball team threw everything at Oregon Tech on Friday night, walking away with a three-set victory in the season opener, 25-16, 25-19, 25-16. The Beacons had at least 15 attack attempts from five different players as Cori Wallace (pictured) averaged 11 assists per set.
Head Coach Mike Gaffaney said, “As a coach, you love to see great distribution of the sets and you love to see everybody contribute on the offensive side and we did exactly that tonight. The first conference match is always tough but we held to the game plan. We wanted to come into tonight playing at a really high level and we did that tonight, in front of a great home crowd.”
NCU showed something different in nearly each set on Friday. The Beacons took the opener behind .344 hitting as a team with 14 kills, along with four blocks. Chandler Gabrio had three kills and three blocks for the victors.
The Beacon servers emerged in the second set, collecting five of their ten service aces on the night. Dana McGowan led the way with a pair of aces. NCU continued to hit at a high efficiency with 14 more kills as Wallace collected 13 assists.
“We practice aggressive serves,” said Gaffaney, “and we want to score points and put our opponents out of their system and I am proud of the way we did that tonight.”
In the final set, the Beacons added five more aces including two from Maren Mansfield, while also benefitting from ten points off of unforced errors by the Owls.
The Beacons (6-2, 1-0 CCC) were led offensively and defensively by Gabrio, who ended the night with a match-high of nine kills and five blocks as she hit .467. Janel Fetters also had five blocks to go along with eight kills. Mansfield finished with seven kills and three aces and McGowan added a match-high eleven digs.
Oregon Tech (6-7, 0-1) was led by Marlee Smith, collecting a team-leading eight kills and eleven digs. Marie Baumann added ten digs while setters Kayleigh Whelchel and Megan Holland threw in eleven assists apiece.
Northwest Christian is off to their best start after eight matches in school history.