Turnabout is Fair Play as Northwest Beats Evergreen
Turnabout was fair play for Northwest University on Friday night, and it came at the expense of Evergreen as the Eagles defeated the Geoducks 25-21,19-25, 25-19, 25-15 in Cascade Collegiate Conference volleyball action inside Costantino Recreation Center.
The Geoducks (9-11 overall, 7-4 CCC) had rallied from a deficit to beat Northwest (11-9, 7-4) in four sets in the conference opener for both teams played on Sept. 1 in Kirkland. Tonight was the opener for the second half of the conference schedule and this time it was Northwest that left the opponents' gym with the win.
Northwest ended up with 52 kills and just 10 errors on 123 attack attempts, with Sarah Warner collecting 12 kills with no errors on 30 attempts for a .400 attack rate. Keann White also finished with 12 kills while hitting .360. Courteney Carr had 40 assists, Cristina Hegarty 21 digs and Kylie Szczepanski added five block assists for the Eagles.
The Geoducks started slowly, hitting .239 in the opening set before getting it going on offense with a .312 attack rate in the second set. After that, the Eagles were difficult to stop. Northwest finished with a .341 attack percentage, including a .481 mark in a momentum-turning third set.
Renita Gray led four Evergreen players in double-figure kills with 15. She was followed by Natalie Taylor with 14, Lehualani Keka with 13 and Chloee Hunt with 11. Hunt ended the match with a .368 attack rate, followed closely by Keka at .345. Setter Sierra Wolff had 50 assists for the Geoducks, who also got five block assists from Keka and 17 digs from Alexis Garrison.
Evergreen returns to action at 8 p.m. Saturday against the Walla Walla University Wolves.