Box Score

NEWBERG, Ore. - With a stout defensive effort that produced 89 digs and 12 blocks in four games, the George Fox University Bruins held off the feisty Whitman College Missionaries for a 3-1 win (25-12, 25-18, 13-25, 25-23) in a Northwest Conference women's volleyball match Saturday night here at the Wheeler Sports Center's Miller Gym.

The Missionaries went down quietly in the first two sets, hitting minus-.083 and .061 while the Bruins were at .286 and then .098.  The Bruins fell behind 7-4 in the opener before out-scoring the visitors 21-5 the rest of the way.  In the second set, the Bruins trailed only once at 3-2, and eventually built a nine-point lead when Ashley Sheller's service ace made it 24-15.  After three Whitman points, a service error ended the set and put the Bruins up 2-0.

The Whitman offense finally began to click in the third set as the Missionaries hit .278 while the Bruins struggled to a .000 percentage.  The Missionaries burst out of the blocks with a 4-1 run and never looked back, building up a 12-point lead of 20-8 on back-to-back kills by Katie Miller before the teams split the final 10 points.

The fourth set was a back-and-forth affair as the winless Missionaries battled to force a fifth and deciding set.  There were 16 ties, including every number from 10-10 through 19-19, and George Fox never took a lead until a block by Jennifer Panico and Jessica Morrison gave them a 15-14 advantage.  The Missionaries went ahead for the last time at 23-22 on a kill by Miller, but the Bruins answered with a kill by Lyndsay Hovee, a block by Morrison and Sarah Crossfield, and a match-ending kill by Crossfield.

The Bruins, spreading their offense around, were led by Hovee and Panico with nine kills apiece, while Natalie Pickett added seven with a .353 hitting percentage and Crossfield had six.  Ali Lefebvre had 24 assists and Lani Rasmussen 10.  Sheller and Panico led the defense with 20 digs each, Lefebvre added 12, and Sarah Burkey had 10.  Morrison with six blocks, Pickett with five, and Hovee with four cemented the front line.

The Whitman tandem of Alex Graves and Katie Miller kept the Missionaries in the game, Graves posting 20 kills with a .353 percentage and Miller adding 15 winners.  Krystin Norman passed out 31 assists.  Kelsie Butts made 22 digs, Graves 20, and Miller 11, and Graves had four service aces.

George Fox (9-5, NWC 3-1) next hosts Linfield College Friday at 7:00 p.m.  Whitman (0-13, NWC 0-4) hosts Pacific Lutheran University Friday, also at 7:00 p.m.