Wolves Volleyball- A Game Three Rally Not Enought to Swing the Match
Charles Fletcher, Sports Writer
College Place, Wash. - Evergreen State College (3-12, 2-7) beat the Wolves in a match that consisted of four hard fought sets. The Wolves gained an early 2-0 lead before a dangerous Geoducks attack sparked an 8-0 run. Emily Allen scored a well place kill to help the Wolves climb back within two before Evergreen's Chloee Hunt responded with a powerful kill of her own. The Geoducks did a great job of blocking the Wolves' attacks as they opened up a 14-7 lead and were able to control the remainder of the set, winning it by a score of 25-13.
The second set opened up highly competitively as both teams traded points, neither able to create separation. A couple powerful serves by Evergreen's Renita Gray then gave the Geoducks an 11-8 lead, leading to a timeout by Wolves' head coach James Thorn. After the timeout the Wolves were able to work their way back to tie the game at 11-11 before a kill from Bethanie Nelson gave the lead back to the Geoducks. Evergreen's strong defense then sparked a run resulting in the Geoducks winning the second set by a score of 25-15
Walla Walla came out strong in the third set, as Lauren Barlow scored her 4th kill, and Maria Darling served an ace en route to an early 6-2 advantage for the Wolves. Continued strong play from Walla Walla's attackers gave the Wolves a 10-5 advantage and forced Evergreen coach Angela Spoja to take a timeout. After the timeout, Emily Allen's kill gave the Wolves their biggest lead of the match at 14-7 before Evergreen's Bethanie Nelson answered with a kill of her own. The two teams began trading points before a block by Evergreen's Renita Gray brought the Geoducks back within four at 20-16 and led to a Walla Walla timeout. Coming out of the timeout the two teams continued to battle before Chloee Hunt's emphatic kill pulled the Geoducks even with the Wolves at 24-24. Lauren Barlow would later win the set for Walla Walla with an impressive kill of her own.
In the fourth set, solid attacking from the Geoducks led to an early 5-1 lead, and they maintained this lead for the early portion of the set, forcing a Wolves timeout with Evergreen leading 11-4. Evergreen continued to build their lead as a kill by Natalie Taylor made the score 17-5. The Geoducks were able to carry their lead to the finish, as they won the 4th set by a score of 25-9.
After the game, Wolves head coach James Thorn had some words of encouragement for his team saying, "[the third set] shows us that we can have a low error set, we don't have to hit a high percentage to win a set...We are very young right now, our expectations are high, but we don't have to be perfect to win a set."
Evergreen's attacking duo was at the top of their game tonight as Chloee Hunt tallied 16 kills, and Kylie Kytan racked up 39 assists. Lauren Barlow was very active for the Wolves tonight, accumulating 9 kills and 13 digs. Carly Ursino and Krista Schafer also played well on defense with 11 and 9 digs respectively.
Walla Walla now sets their sights on October 7 at 3:30p.m. when they match up against Warner Pacific College.