OLYMPIA, Wash. – After the Evergreen Geoducks took the first set, the visiting Northwest Christian Beacons left no doubt the rest of the way, cruising to a four-set victory in a Cascade Conference volleyball match on Saturday evening at CRC Gymnasium in Olympia, Wash.
In the opening set, the Geoducks (2-9, 1-5 CCC) came out ready to compete as they led the Beacons (12-5, 5-3 CCC) for much of the set. NCU tied things up at 17-17 and again at 20-20 and 22-22 but the Geoducks used a kill by Molly King (Centralia, Wash./Centralia HS/Tacoma CC) to clinch the set one win by a final of 25-23.
Set two started out as a close one as well but Northwest Christian went on a 6-0 run to take a 13-9 lead and a 7-1 run put the Beacons up by even more as NCU hit .487 with 22 kills and just three errors on 39 attacks to collect the 25-15 set two win.
Coming out of the break, the Beacons again put the petal to the metal as the Geoducks quickly found themselves down by double-digits. All hope was not lost for Evergreen and the green and white put together a seven-point run towards the end of the frame but it wasn’t enough as NCU earned the 25-16 set three victory to pull ahead.
The Geoducks looked to use some of that late momentum in the fourth set and it worked early but a handful of runs by the Beacons put the set out of reach and Northwest Christian used the 25-15 set four win to clinch the match, three sets to one.
Evergreen was led by 12 kills form Victoria Love (Seaside, Calif./Seaside HS/Hartnell College), who had a collegiate-best 37 kills on Friday night to finish with 49 for the weekend. Cassidy Watkins (Tucson, Ariz./Mountain View HS/Trevecca Nazarene Univ.) finished with 10 kills while Kelsey Delagrange (Longview, Wash./Kelso HS/Mt Hood CC) finished with 34 assists on the night. Liza Domingo (Ka’a’awa, Hawai’i/Kahuku HS/Lower Columbia College) dug out a match-best 23 digs for the Geoducks.
Northwest Christian was led by 15 kills from Chandler Gabrio and 13 from Janel Fetters. Corri Wallace finished with 46 assists on 59 NCU kills while Dana McGowan led the back row with 21 digs. The Beacons finished with nine blocks, including four each from Fetters, Chelsea McGowan and Gabrio.
Evergreen hits the road next weekend, traveling to Southern Oregon on Friday night and Oregon Tech on Saturday.