Evergreen Season Ends With Loss to Northwest
OLYMPIA – Visiting Northwest University spoiled Evergreen's Senior Night and at the same time wrapped up a Cascade Collegiate Conference volleyball postseason tournament berth on Friday night by sweeping the Geoducks, 28-26, 25-21, 25-18 at CRC Gymnasium.
Northwest improves to 15-14 overall and 8-10 in the conference while Evergreen ends its season at 14-18 overall and 4-14 in the CCC.
The first set was one of the closest and hardest-fought sets witnessed by Geoduck fans this season with a total of 10 ties and six lead changes. Northwest led by four points on several occasions, the last one at 22-18 on a finish by Hannah Hanson. The Geoducks would not give up without a fight, however, scoring five of the next six points to knot it at 23-23 with kills coming from Shelby Clark, Molly King, Nicole Diehl and Kelsey Delagrange.
Evergreen actually took a 25-24 lead on another Diehl kill, but after trading a couple of points the Eagles finished the set on consecutive kills by Rae Ann Haistings.
The Eagles hit .308 during the set, led by Amanda Waterman with six kills in 13 attempts. Evergreen hit .225 as a team and Diehl did Waterman one better with seven kills and no errors on nine swings.
There were eight ties and four lead changes in the second set, though Northwest at one point built a 14-9 margin. Again, the home team battled and eventually tied it at 20-20 on a kill by Brandy Iverson, but the Eagles finished it out by scoring five of the final six points, including the last three on an Evergreen error and kills by Brooke Riddle and Waterman.
Haistings had four kills to lead the Eagles in the second set, but Evergreen's Iverson was the set leader with six kills, followed by Diehl with four more finishes.
The finale showed seven ties and two lead changes, and when Northwest went ahead 13-12 on a kill by Dakota Adams it would not give up the advantage.
The Eagles had their best hitting percentage in the final set at .333, led by Hanson with four kills and one error in six attempts. Diehl continued her impressive offensive night with four kills to lead the Geoducks.
Northwest had a strong game at the net with eight team blocks, including three in each of the first two sets. Hanson led her team with five block assists. On the other side, Evergreen had four team blocks, led by Matisse Davis with four block assists.
Diehl led all players with 15 kills, and with just three errors in 24 attempts, she finished with an impressive .500 attack percentage. Jaclyn Trinque had 32 assists and Natimia Barker-Doss had a match high 14 digs. Waterman led her team with 12 kills and Morgan Pilon and Riddle combined for 31 assists.
Honored prior to the match were five Evergreen seniors: Jaclyn Trinque, Natimia Barker-Doss, Devyn Odom, Molly King and Shelby Clark.