Jorden Porter hits through the Warner Pacific block.
Knights Take the Momentum to Top Evergreen
OLYMPIA – Janessa White and Janessa Mast combined for 36 kills as the visiting Warner Pacific Knights defeated The Evergreen State College, 26-24, 22-25, 25-17, 25-20, in a Cascade Collegiate Conference volleyball match played Saturday night in Costantino Recreation Center.
The Knights (2-2 overall, 2-1 CCC) took the momentum over the final two sets after the host Geoducks had battled to even things through the first two.
The first set was closely contested with a total of 14 ties and six lead changes. The Knights had a pair of three-point leads, and Evergreen eventually built a 20-16 advantage but couldn't hold on. Warner Pacific hit .294 during the set, led by White with six kills, while the Geoducks hit .273, paced by Jorden Porter with four kills.
Warner Pacific built an 8-3 advantage in the second set only to see the Geoducks storm back to tie it at 9-9, capped by consecutive kills by Natalie Taylor. They would build a five-point lead before Warner Pacific pulled to within a point at 23-22, but a Chloee Hunt kill and a Warner Pacific attack error wrapped up the set for the hosts. Hunt had seven kills with no errors for the Geoducks, while White added six more kills with no errors for the Knights, in the second set.
The final two sets went the way of the visitors as the Geoducks struggled to effectively get into their offense. They hit just .129 in the third set and -.061 in the final set and had just 15 combined kills in those sets. Mast stepped it up for the Knights as she recorded six kills in the third set and four more in the fourth.
Hunt led the Geoducks with 13 kills and a .323 attack percentage, while Porter added 12 kills and Taylor 11 more. Kylie Kytan finished with 36 assists, Taylor and Cheyenne Baird tied for team-high dig honors with 14, and Bethanie Nelson topped the team with five block assists. The Geoducks finished with a .155 team attack percentage.
White led all players with 19 kills, followed by Mast with 17, as the Knights hit .245 overall. Kealia Rosa ended up with 47 assists and Mast was one of four Warner Pacific players with double figures in digs, finishing with 19. M'Kailah Redden led all players with six block assists.
Evergreen hits the road next week, playing conference matches at Southern Oregon in Ashland on Friday and at Oregon Tech in Klamath Falls on Saturday.