Pirates Hope to Bounce Back from Home Losses
SPOKANE, Wash. -- The Whitworth University volleyball team will hit the road this week to take on Lewis & Clark College on Friday at 7:00 p.m. The following day the Pirates will play at George Fox University at 5:00 p.m. Both matches are Northwest Conference contests. Whitworth fell to 4-9 overall and 0-2 in the NWC after opening conference play with a pair of home losses to Linfield College and Willamette University. On Friday the Pirates and Wildcats split the first two sets. After a hard-fought third set won by Linfield, the Wildcats scored 12 straight points during the fourth set to win going away 25-17, 21-25, 25-22, 25-12. Brynn DeLong (Jr., OH, Spokane, Wash.) had 12 kills and Randi Stephens (Jr., MB, Bozeman, Mont.) was in on six blocks to lead the Bucs. Saturday Whitworth suffered through a 13-0 streak in the first set, fought from behind but lost the second set, worked hard to win the third set, then went through another long scoring drought (12-1) in the final set of a 25-10, 25-21, 18-25, 25-15 loss to Willamette. The Pirates hit only .007 as a team. Ka'ipo Rocha (So., MB, Pukalani, Hawaii) had seven kills and four blocks. The Opponents: Lewis & Clark comes into the week 5-5 overall and 1-1 in the NWC. The Pioneers won their conference opener 3-2 at George Fox last Wednesday before falling 3-1 at #15 Puget Sound on Saturday. All-NWC middle Katherine Fiedler leads the team in kills per set (2.5) and blocks per set (1.1). Last season L&C swept the Pirates, winning 3-1 in Spokane and 3-0 in Portland. George Fox is 7-3 overall, 0-2 in the NWC. After falling to L&C and 19th-ranked Pacific Lutheran (3-0) to open conference play last week, the Bruins bounced back with non-conference wins over Northwest Christian and Corban. Eliza Pledger ranks first in the conference in blocks per set (1.4) and third in hitting percentage (.316). Last year GFU beat Whitworth 3-2 in Newberg, Oregon before Whitworth won 3-1 in Spokane. Coming Up: Next weekend Whitworth will return home to host Pacific Lutheran (Friday) and Puget Sound (Saturday). |
