NEWBERG, Ore. – Closing out the fourth and final set with an astonishing 21-3 run, the George Fox University Bruins opened the second half of Northwest Conference volleyball play with a 3-1 victory (21-25, 25-22, 25-18, 25-13) over the Pacific University Boxers Wednesday night here at the Wheeler Sports Center's Miller Gym.

The Bruins' fourth-set domination began after they had fallen behind 10-4 and it appeared that a fifth set might be in the offing.  Brooke Sturdevant got the Bruins going with a kill, and after a service error, Erin Campbell hit a winner that made it 11-6 Pacific.  With Tiffany Burk serving, the Bruins proceeded to rattle off 10 more unanswered points, with Kylee Adderson striking three times and Campbell twice more.  Mariah McHolland and Una Areta had kills for the Boxers around a Campbell spike, but another Campbell kill ignited a final 8-0 George Fox run that sealed the deal.  Campbell had two aces in the run, including the final point of the match.

The first set featured 10 ties and five lead changes, with neither team leading by more than three points until the end.  The Bruins pulled into a 21-21 tie on a kill by Adderson, but the Boxers took the last four points on a kill by Jamie Steach, an ace by Kylee Oshiro, and winners by Areta and McHolland.

A 7-0 run with Kelsea Meyers serving gave the Bruins a 10-5 lead in the second set, and they upped it to 16-10 following a solo block by Campbell.  The Boxers rallied with a 6-0 run to tie it 16-16, and eventually regained the lead 18-17 on a Bruin attack error.  The visitors were still up 21-20 following a kill by Areta, but Sturdevant had two service aces and Campbell two kills in a 5-1 closing rush that enabled the Bruins to tie the match at a set apiece.

The third set likewise was tight, with eight deadlocks, before the Bruins finally pulled away.  Areta lifted the Boxers to a final tie at 15-15 with a kill, but Pacific's next three attempts all went astray as the Bruins jumped ahead 18-15 and never trailed again.  Meyers served three more winning points, two of them her own service aces, for a 21-15 lead, and Campbell added two kills in the Bruins' final four points that extended the margin to the final seven points.

In the last stanza, Pacific built a 10-4 lead on four straight George Fox hitting errors before the Bruins righted themselves.  At one stretch with Burk serving, the Bruins posted seven kills in the space of nine points.  The Bruins hit .333 and .353 in the final two sets while holding the Boxers to marks of .133 and .038, finishing with a .239 percentage in the match (55 kills, 21 errors in 142 attempts) to a .112 mark (39-24-134) for Pacific.

Campbell and Adderson were the Bruins' hottest hitters with 19 and 11 kills respectively while hitting .385 and .524, Adderson without an error.  Sturdevant and Burk added 10 kills each, while Payton Shrum handed out 44 assists.  Chelsea Wilson led the defense with 22 digs and Campbell had 13.  Burk had six blocks (one solo) in the Bruins' total of 10.

Areta was the only Boxer in double digits in kills with 20, while Emily Farnham passed out 33 assists.  Becky Sheller had 17 digs, Areta 12, and Lia Zablan 10 for Pacific, and McHolland assisted on both of the Boxers' blocks.

The win enabled the Bruins to split the season series with the Boxers and lifted them to a 9-8 overall record and 4-5 in the conference.  Pacific fell to 5-11 overall and 4-5 in the NWC.

NEXT: George Fox hosts the 17th-ranked University of Puget, against whom the Bruins are 0-1 this season, on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. … Pacific hosts 16th-ranked Pacific Lutheran University Friday at 7:00 pm.