Evergreen Battles But Falls to NCU
OLYMPIA – The Evergreen State College put up a battle against the visiting Northwest Christian Beacons on Saturday afternoon but ended up on the short end of a 23-25, 25-23, 25-13, 25-23 decision in a Cascade Collegiate Conference volleyball match played at CRC Gymnasium.
Northwest Christian improves to 9-11 overall and 6-10 in the conference while the Geoducks are now 14-17 overall and 4-13 in the CCC.
Nicole Diehl finished with 16 kills and both setter Jaclyn Trinque and Kelsey Delagrange ended up with seven finishes as the Geoducks went toe-to-toe with the taller Beacons. Trinque had 26 assists and 15 digs and Natimia Barker-Doss contributed 23 digs to the Evergreen cause. Chandler Gabrio, a 6-2 middle, finished with 14 kills and five block assists and Kayla Ping (pictured) , a 5-10 outside hitter, added 10 kills, one solo block and four block assists for NCU. Alyssa Dorr had 39 digs while Sydney Rothenbush and Dorr both had 14 digs for NCU.
Three of the four sets were very close and the first two in particular were almost carbon copies. There were nine ties and four leads changes in the first set and nine ties and five lead changes in the second.
In the opening set, Evergreen led by as many as four points at 14-10, while the largest advantage for the Beacons was two points at 6-4. The set was knotted at 18-18 when the Geoducks rattled off four consecutive points, including a kill and a service ace by Matisse Davis. The Beacons managed to cut their deficit to 24-23 on Ping's kill, but the Geoducks closed out the first set on a kill by Diehl.
The second set was another close one as neither team could separate from the other by more than three points. Again, the score was tied at 18-18 but this time it was NCU that ran off three straight points to take a lead it would not lose. Evergreen pulled within one at 24-23 on Diehl's kill, but Gabrio ended it was a finish at the net.
The third set was the only one that wasn't close as Gabrio collected five kills and two block assists and Ping added three kills and two block assists. The Beacons hit .195 in the set to just .049 for the Geoducks.
The final set featured several runs, NCU taking off to a 11-4 lead in the early going only to see Evergreen battle back and tie it at 13-13. Delagrange got the run going with a kill and then served five times for Geoducks points. NCU eventually took a 19-16 lead, only for the Geoducks to score seven consecutive points, six on Diehl's serve. Now facing a 23-19 deficit, the Beacons scored the final six points of the match on a kill, service ace and four Evergreen errors.
The Geoducks close out their seaso at 7 p.m. next Friday, Nov. 7, when they host Northwest University.