NEWBERG, Ore. - Maintaining their position in the tightly-packed race for second place in the Northwest Conference standings, the George Fox University Bruins took care of the Pacific University Boxers 3-0 (25-13, 25-13, 25-16) in women's volleyball action Friday night here at the Wheeler Sports Center's Miller Gym.

George Fox improved to 16-5 overall and 9-4 in the conference with the win over Pacific, which dropped to 7-14 overall and 2-11 in the NWC.  The Bruins were locked in a three-way tie for second entering the evening with Puget Sound, which edged Whitworth 3-2 and is now 15-6 and 9-4 in the NWC, and Lewis & Clark, which was stunned at home by Willamette 3-2 and is now 12-10 and 8-5 in the conference, one game back in fourth.  With Pacific Lutheran (17-6, NWC 13-0) having clinched the conference title and automatic bid to the NCAA Division III National Tournament by beating Whitman 3-0, the team which finishes second would bolster its chances for an at-large bid to the playoffs.  The conference sent its top two teams (PLU and UPS) to the tournament last year.

It was the combination of an efficient offense and a defense that forced the visiting Boxers into a negative hitting percentage for the match that earned the Bruins the victory on this night.  George Fox posted 34 kills and only nine errors in 100 attempts for a .250 hitting mark, while Pacific struggled to a minus-.009 percentage with 27 kills but 28 errors in 116 attempts.

The Bruins scored the first five points of the opening set with Ali Toedtemeier serving as the Boxers had four attack errors and a bad set in that span.  The Bruins hit their first double-digit lead at 17-7 on a kill by Jennifer Panico and upped it to 20-8 on another Pacific hitting miscue.  A Lyndsay Hovee kill closed out the set with the Bruins hitting .269 to minus-.100 for the Boxers.

Pacific led early in set two, Kelsy Takashima's kill giving the Boxers a 4-2 advantage before the Bruins got going.  An 11-2 run featuring two kills by Kaitlyn Maddams and one each by Sarah Crossfield, Hovee, Panico, and even setter Toedtemeier gave the Bruins a 13-6 lead, and they extended it to 23-10 before eventually ending it on a Hovee winner.  Pacific improved to a .079 hitting percentage, but the Bruins sizzled with 13 kills and only one error for a .387 mark.

The teams swapped points back and forth through the early stages of the third set, with ties on every point 1-8.  The Bruins then broke the 8-8 deadlock with four straight points as Panico and Eliza Pledger posted kills, Panico, the league leader in service aces, added another ace, and Crossfield and Pledger combined for a block to make it 12-8.  Although the Boxers hung around for a while, the Bruins finally pulled away with a 4-0 run that moved them from a 19-14 edge to a more comfortable 23-14 margin.  With an attack error on the final point, Pacific hit minus-.021 in the set to .140 for the Bruins.

Hovee led the Bruins with 11 kills, Pledger and Panico had six each, and Crossfield had five in six attempts for a .833 percentage.  Toedtemeier had 31 assists.  Carley Johnson led the defense with 18 digs, and Hovee and Panico had 13 each.  The Bruins had seven team blocks, with Maddams assisting on four.

Block, the NWC leader in kills per set with a 3.73 average that was 38th nationally coming in, had only eight kills, as did Lauren Baum.  Brittney Johnson passed out 16 assists, and Jade Thompson had 20 digs.

George Fox plays the second of a three-game home stretch Saturday as it hosts Linfield College at 7:00 p.m.  Pacific returns home to host Lewis & Clark Saturday, also at 7:00 p.m.