Principia Box Score
Pomina-Pitzer Box Score

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Stretching their season-opening winning streak to four, the George Fox University Bruins overpowered the Principia College Panthers 3-0 (30-22, 30-21, 30-19) in the first game of the Pacific Coast Classic women's volleyball tournament Friday afternoon here at Pomona-Pitzer Colleges' Memorial Gym.

The Bruins' streak came to an end in their second game of the day, however, as they dropped a hard-fought 3-2 decision (30-26, 28-30, 23-30, 30-20, 11-15) to the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens in PPC's Voelkel Gym.

George Fox was firing on all cylinders in its first match, hitting .318 with 51 kills and only nine errors in 132 attempts. The Bruins hit .320 in the first game, .386 in the second, and "cooled off" to .237 in the third.

The Bruins led from start to finish in each of the first two games, opening up big leads early and never letting Principia mount any comeback. In the third game, Principia overcame an early 4-0 deficit to take a 14-12 lead, but the Bruins reeled off eight unanswered points to take control and out-scored the 18-5 to close out the game.

Whitney Kolb with 12 kills, Jennifer Panico with 11, and Elizabeth Anderson with 10 led the George Fox attack, while Amy Batchelder passed out 37 assists and Sarah Crossfield had nine. Jenna Dohren led the defense with 24 digs, with Batchelder adding 18 and Panico 17. Anderson assisted on five of the Bruins' six blocks and Crossfield helped on four.

Each of the first two games in the Pomona match was tightly contested, but in the third and fourth games, first the Sagehens and then the Bruins took turns building up big early leads and then cruising to victory. George Fox never led in the fifth game, but did battle back from an 8-4 deficit to tie it 10-10 before the home team won five of the next six points to end the Bruins' string of victories.

Panico had 21 kills and Anderson 15 for the Bruins, but their hitting percentage dropped off to .179, with 65 kills and 25 errors in 224 attempts. Batchelder contributed 50 assists. Defensively, Panico also led the way with 26 digs, Dohren had 19, Crossfield 13, and Batchelder and Lani Rasmussen 11 apiece. The Bruins made 14 blocks, with Anderson and Natalie Pickett in on seven each.

George Fox (4-1) will play two more games in the Classic Saturday, both at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges' gym. The Bruins will take on nationally-ranked Haverford College at 10:00 a.m., then face host Claremont-Mudd-Scripps at 2:30 p.m.