SPOKANE, Wash. - Bouncing back from a tough five-set loss the night before at Whitman College, the George Fox University Bruins showed they can win the close ones by pulling out another five-setter 3-2 (30-28, 30-23, 18-30, 27-30, 17-15) over the Whitworth University Pirates in a Northwest Conference women's volleyball match Saturday night here at the Whitworth Fieldhouse.

The Bruins pulled out a tight first game that saw 11 ties and four lead changes. GFU took a 28-25 lead after back-to-back errors by the Pirates. Whitworth tied the game at 28-28 before the Bruins won with two straight kills, the last from Jenna Dohren.

George Fox used that momentum to dominate the second game, hitting .255 as a team for their best percentage of the match. The Bruins took a 10-5 lead on a kill from Cassandra Woods and led by as many as eight points for much of the set before winning 30-23 on a Pirate attack error.

After the break, the Pirates came out with a .316 hitting game of their own to blow past the Bruins 30-18. Whitworth built leads of 13-4, 18-9, and 28-15 before winning on a George Fox attack error.

The Bruins seemed to shake off of the third-game loss when they led for most of the fourth stanza. Whitney Kolb's kill gave GFU a 19-15 lead, and Elizabeth Anderson finished a kill for a 25-21 Bruin advantage, but the Pirates rallied with a 9-2 run to close the game, winning on an ace by Cassie Moore to tie the match 2-2.

The final game went back and forth. George Fox overcame an early 4-2 deficit to take a 7-5 lead on Carli Bowman's ace, but Whitworth rallied with five straight points, including two kills by Randi Stephens. The Pirates led 12-9 when GFU scored three straight to tie the game. Whitworth managed to gain two match points at 14-13 and 15-14 before the Bruins finished the game and the match with three straight points and a 17-15 win.

George Fox got 14 kills from Anderson, 13 from Jennifer Panico, and 11 each from Kolb and Woods, the latter with a torrid .579 hitting percentage. Amy Batchelder dished out 46 assists and Sarah Crossfield had nine. The Bruins made a season-high 110 digs, led by Panico with 26, while Batchelder added 18, Sarah Burkey 16, and Dohren 15. Anderson had four blocks.

Sarah Rusch led all players with 33 kills while hitting .460 for the Pirates. Nikki Bardwell and Jill Solbrack added a dozen kills each, and Stephens chipped in with 11 kills. Holly Ridings had 63 assists. Moore had a match-high 36 digs out of the Pirates' 121 and led all players with five aces. Ridings had 25 digs, Bardwell 22, Solbrack 12, and Rusch and Holly Tomlin 10 each.

George Fox (6-3, NWC 1-1) plays its first home match Friday at 7:00 p.m. vs. Pacific Lutheran University, while Whitworth (6-4, NWC 1-1) goes to Willamette University Friday, also at 7:00 p.m.