WALLA WALLA, Wash. – Setter Payton Shrum, middle blocker Tiffany Burk, and libero Chelsea Wilson established career highs in assists, kills, and digs respectively, leading the George Fox University Bruins to a 3-1 win (26-28, 30-28, 25-17, 25-22) over the Whitman College Missionaries in Northwest Conference volleyball Saturday here at the Sherwood Center.

Shrum's 52 assists topped her previous best of 49 vs. Whitman last year on Sept. 28, and she added 19 digs and five block assists in the match.  Burk's 22 kills bested her previous high of 20 vs. Willamette University on Oct. 6, 2012, and she contributed one solo block and five block assists as well.  Wilson's 38 digs surpassed her all-time high of 36 vs. the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges on Sept. 8, 2012, in the Cal Lu Fornia Invitational.  She tied her career high with seven assists which she set vs. Linfield on Oct. 4 this year, and also served three aces, giving her 99 in her career to move past Elizabeth Anderson (97, 2004-07) for 10th on the all-time George Fox list.

After four early ties in the first set, Whitman went on an 8-2 run, helped by three George Fox attack errors, to build its largest lead at 13-7.  The Bruins responded with a 13-4 stretch featuring three kills by Karlee Jo Sampson to take a 20-17 advantage.  Another Whitman surge of 7-2 put the home team up 24-22, but the Bruins hung on with a kill by Erin Campbell and a Missionary attack error.  After two more ties, a Bruin service error and an ace by Taylor Aschenbrenner gave Whitman the opening set.

Whitman jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the second set thanks to two kills by Jillian Davis and three Bruin hitting miscues, but the Bruins turned the tide with a 6-0 run of their own that included kills by Wilson and Erin Sprowls and four Missionary errors.  A 5-0 run by the Missionaries enabled them to build a 15-10 lead, and they stayed in front all the way up to a 24-21 potential set point.  However, the Bruins responded with four straight points, two kills by Burk sandwiching two blocks by Shrum together with Campbell and Burk, to go up 25-24.  A Bruin attack error kept Whitman alive, and the teams jockeyed back and forth before the Bruins pulled off the comeback on a Whitman service error and an attack error.

George Fox hit a blistering .410 (21 kills and five errors in 39 attempts) to win the third set, but had to rally from a 15-10 deficit to do so.  A kill by Shrum ignited a 10-0 run with Sampson serving that featured four kills by Campbell and three by Burk, giving the Bruins a 20-15 lead.  After a service error, the Bruins closed the set with a 5-1 run that included two kills, one of them the final point, by Kylee Adderson.

In the fourth set, George Fox jumped out to a 10-3 lead, paced by a pair of Adderson kills and two blocks by Burk.  Whitman began to chip away and finally drew within one at 23-22 on a kill by Davis. The Bruins responded, though, with a kill by Adderson and a block by Sprowls to end the match, giving the Bruins a sweep of the two-game season series.

In addition to Burk's big night, Campbell had 12 kills, Sampson 11, and Sprowls 10, while Adderson just missed double digits with nine.  The Bruins hit .190 (66-31-184) to .128 (55-30-195) for the Missionaries, and out-dug the home team 92-73 while out-blocking them 12-8. Sampson had 10 digs, and Adderson had four blocks, one solo.

Davis was the only Missionary in double figures in kills with 18, while Aschenbrenner made 45 assists.  Hannah Linsenmayer made 26 digs, Davis 13, and Becca Gotz 11, with Natalia Zea contributing eight blocks, two solo.

NEXT: George Fox (10-10, NWC 5-7) visits Linfield College and Whitman (6-19, NWC 4-8) goes to Pacific Lutheran University Saturday, both games tipping off at 7:00 p.m.