Box Score

TACOMA, Wash. - Bouncing back from a lacklustre performance in their Northwest Conference-opening home loss to Pacific University on Wednesday, the George Fox University Bruins stunned the 16th-ranked and defending NWC champion Pacific Lutheran University Lutes 3-2 (25-17, 15-25, 22-25, 25-15, 16-14) in women's volleyball Saturday night here at Olson Auditorium.

After hitting only .032 in the loss to Pacific, the Bruins hit .263, .207 and .241 in the three sets they won against PLU, finishing with a .130 attack percentage in the match to .098 for the Lutes.  The George Fox defense played one of its strongest games of the year, with 83 digs and 12 blocks on the night against the power-packed Lutes.  PLU saw its string of 18 straight conference wins, dating back to the last weekend of the 2006 season and including a perfect 16-0 record in 2007, come to a crashing halt.

George Fox stunned PLU and a crowd of 400 by handily winning the first set 25-17, but the home team seemed to right the ship with 25-15 and 25-22 wins in the next two sets. Even in the wins, however, the Lutes showed signs that they were not at their best as they posted meager .185 and .100 attack percentages.  The Bruins regained the momentum with a convincing fourth-set win, highlighted by a string of four service aces by Lindsay Hovee, to force a deciding fifth set.

The Lutes, taking advantage of three George Fox errors, took a 4-2 lead, only to see the resilient Bruins come back with four straight points, three on kills by Stephanie Kerr.  With the score 10-9 in their favor, the Bruins scored three consecutive points on a PLU attack error and kills by Kerr and Jessica Morrison.  The Lutes battled back to tie the score at 14-14, but Kerr and Morrison combined to stuff PLU All-American Beth Hanna at the net, and Sarah Crossfield finished the match with a kill.

Crossfield led the Bruins with 14 kills, Hovee added 11, and Kerr chipped in with 10.  Lani Rasmussen and Ali Lefebvre spread around 20 and 16 assists respectively.  Defensively, Jennifer Panico led the way with 23 digs, followed by Hovee with 20, Jenna Dohren with 19, and Lefebvre with 12.  Natalie Pickett was particularly strong in the middle with one solo block and six block assists.

Hanna led the Lutes with 16 kills, while setter Sarah Beaver had 36 assists. Brenna Archibald made 18 digs, followed by Hanna with 17 and Beaver and Kelsie Moore with 13 each.  Anella Olbertz had one solo block and five block assists.

George Fox (7-5, NWC 1-1) returns home to host Whitworth University Friday at 7:00 p.m.  Pacific Lutheran (7-4, NWC 1-1) hosts the 9th-ranked University of Puget Sound Wednesday at 7:00 p.m.  The match was originally scheduled for Memorial Fieldhouse on the UPS campus, but facility maintenance issues have forced the teams to switch their home dates. The Lutes are scheduled to play the Loggers on the road on Oct. 22.