Balanced Attack Lifts Geoducks Past Lions
OLYMPIA - Chloee Hunt, Jorden Porter and Natalie Taylor all recorded 13 kills Friday night to lead The Evergreen State College to a three-set sweep of the visiting Multnomah Lions in Cascade Collegiate Conference volleyball action at Costantino Recreation Center.
Set scores were 25-18, 25-20, 25-16.
The Geoducks (2-5 overall) won their conference opener by hitting .274 as a team, including .351 in the final set. Their defense was also on point with 39 total digs and seven team blocks.
Porter, a senior middle hitter from Belgrade, Mont., continued her outstanding early season play with 13 kills and only two errors while recording a .500 attack percentage. She picked up seven of her kills with no errors on 10 attempts in the third set, and she added three service aces during the match.
Taylor, a sophomore outside hitter from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, picked up four kills in both the first and third sets and had five more with just one error on 10 swings in the second. She tied junior libero Cheyenne Baird, from Puyallup, for team-high dig honors with 10.
Finally, Hunt, a freshman outside hitter from Astoria, Ore., got things going for the Geoducks with six kills on eight attempts in the first set on the way to the 13 kills. She added one solo block and five block assists to her outstanding performance.
Spreading the ball around was Kylie Kytan, Evergreen's senior setter from Puyallup, who finished the match with 39 assists.
"I'm really pleased," Evergreen head coach Angela Spoja said. "We were working on the balanced attack. Last year we had two hitters, this year we have pretty much five on the court at all times. And we have people to put in if we need to. So I am very happy with our attack."
Another top performance came from Bethanie Nelson, a freshman middle blocker from Pasco, who ended the match with four block assists.
Multnomah was led by Miranda Halverson with nine kills and a .227 attack percentage, followed by Patty Batoon with seven kills. Marissa Rhodes contributed 15 assists and Maile Kam led the Lions with a match-high 13 digs. The Lions hit .101 as a team with a single-set best of .174 in the second.
There were six ties and three lead changes in the early part of the first set before a kill by Hunt put Evergreen on top to stay at 9-8. Multnomah later scored four consecutive points to cut its deficit to 14-13, but that was as close as the visitors got.
The Lions took a 4-1 lead in the second set, but the Geoducks eventually gained the momentum to build a 20-12 margin on Kytan's service ace. Multnomah had one last surge, cutting its deficit to 21-20 on a kill by Batoon, but the Geoducks pulled away in the end.
The third set was all Evergreen as sophomore defensive specialist and Tacoma native Alexis Barkley served four straight points to start, and the Geoducks never trailed.
Both teams return to conference action at 5 p.m. tomorrow, Evergreen hosting Warner Pacific and Multnomah playing at Northwest University in Kirkland.