Portland, Ore. | CC Perry Gymnasium was packed on Saturday evening for Warner Pacific University Volleyball Senior night as the Knights honored and celebrated their six seniors. The Knights hosted No. 4 Eastern Oregon and the 5-19, 4-16 CCC Knights shocked everyone in the gym as they were able to steal a set from the number 4 nationally ranked team, who has a stunning record of 28-2, 18-2 CCC.
"We played our best of the season the last two nights against two very good teams and I'm happy with the way our girls fought this weekend", said Head Coach
Nels Norquist.
After a quick first set that ended in a 10-25 defeat over the Knights, it was clear the squad wasn't going to end the season and Senior night going out like that. The girls rallied, gathered together and left everything they had on the court.
Set two started with an exchange of points from the Mounties and Knights, trading serves back and forth. The energy in the gym shifted in favor of the Knights, who began to inch into a lead over EOU. After two monstrous kills by Junior
Grace Buchanan, the Knights had taken a 21-17 lead. After a kill by Jet Taylor, the Mounties crept within two but the Knights sealed the victory with Genna Schoen block. The Knights were even with a nationally ranked opponent.
After a couple of consecutive Mountie points, the Knights came back firing as Senior
Lauren Jones rose up for a massive block against EOU's Jet Taylor. The Knights had tied the set at 25. Unfortunately for WPU, the Mountie serving was spectacular and they managed to get another kill by Taylor to take the one point lead and a service ace to seal the victory.
The fourth set started slow for the Knights, as EOU forced a quick WPU timeout after a 6-0 start, forcing a WPU timeout, but the Knights weren’t quite able to dig themselves out of the, then, 13-6 hole and the Mounties sealed the match with a 25-19 victory over Warner Pac.
With it being Senior Night for WPU, the seniors sure left their all in that gym, managing to win a set against one of the best teams in the nation in their last time wearing grey and blue.
Despite the hard-fought match by the Knights, the 2019 season came to a close and the team ends the season with a 5-19 record overall. Let the recruiting season begin.