TACOMA, Wash. – After a thrilling victory in the semifinal game, the George Fox University volleyball team fell to undefeated first seed Pacific Lutheran in a hard-fought four sets.
How It Happened
The Lutes jumped all over Fox to start the championship game, going up by four early, 7-3. The Bruins stormed back, going on a 7-4 run to tie the game at 10 points each. After trading points for a couple of rallies, Taylor Dekoning and
Emily Blagg teamed up on a block to give GFU their first lead of the game, 12-11. The Bruins then scored six straight points, needing only one kill on that run as the Lutes had a flurry of ball-handling and attack errors.
PLU wasn't finished yet, though, as they ran back and tied the game at 21 each eventually. A kill by
Olivia Jacobsen put the Bruins up one, then the Lutes had another attacking error. With Fox up two, 23-21,
Kassandra Mendenhall had a kill to bring the Bruins within one point of winning the first set. Mendenhall would pick up another kill two rallies later to end the set, with Fox on top, 25-22.
The second set started similarly, with the Lutes going up big in the first ten points, but the difference was that the Bruins could not bring the game back. The Bruins pulled with two points at 8-10, but then let the Lutes slip away and fell behind 17-11. After Fox called a timeout, they scored four straight points to once again bring the game within two points, 17-15.
Pacific Luthern responded with a four-point run of their own, however, which snapped any Fox momentum. The Bruins would score just three more points in the set, losing 25-18. With the game tied at one set each, the Bruins stumbled out of the gate in the third, once again falling behind 7-3. In a similar fashion to the second, Fox tried to mount a comeback before falling away again, 17-11. After a timeout – another similarity to the second set – hoping to slow the slew of Lutes points, PLU came out of the break firing to wrap up the set with the same score as the third ended, 25-18.
Down to their last set of the season, the Bruins led just one time in the fourth set, 2-1. The Lutes quickly pulled away, scoring 18 points before Fox scored 10. Fox fell behind by ten at 23-13, and would only get one more point in the set, and went on to lose 25-14.
Top Performances
Senior
Kassandra Mendenhall ended her collegiate career with 12 kills, a team-high. Fellow senior
Kennedy Kibby racked up 33 assists, and senior
Piper Harrop finished with 31 digs.
What It Means
The Bruins finished their historic season with a 16-9 (11-5 NWC record). The team took no time getting into the swing of things in conference play, winning eight of their first ten conference games and making the inaugural NWC Championship. The team only lost to one team from the NWC more than once, the eventual champion Lutes.
