SPOKANE, Wash. - The NCAA DIII Whitworth Pirates made for a tough opponent for the Lewis-Clark State Volleyball Team on Wednesday night. Though the Warriors came away with a hard-fought win (25-21, 25-23, 17-25, 18-25, 16-14), the exhibition game does not impact their overall record.
"We got a chance to test ourselves by changing our lineup around," Head Coach Shaun Pohlman said. "It was nice to have the opportunity to see if we are getting fruit from our labor at this point in the season."
The Warriors got off to a hot start, using a four-point run with kills from Aubrey King, Lauren West and Josye Miller to jump out to a 7-3 lead. After a kill from Brooke Kaawa, Sydney Lawrence put together back-to-back services aces to push their advantage to 12-6. The Pirates fought to even the contest at 19-19 before two Pirate errors and a kill from Lawrence gave the Warriors a 22-19 lead. An ace by Lawrence brought the score to set point before a service error by the Pirates ended the set at 25-21.
Trailing 2-0 early, Madeleine Taylor put the Warriors on the board in the second set with her first kill of the night. Hayley Alvarez was the driving force behind a six-point run, contributing two kills and an ace to push the Warriors in front 9-7. Lawrence, Kaawa and Taylor strung together three-straight kills to give the Warriors a 13-10 advantage. Whitworth fought their way back again, tying the second set at 23-23. A kill from Alvarez brought the game to set point at 24-23 before an attack error by Whitworth gave LCSC a 2-0 set lead in the match.
Taylor added her third kill to dent the scoreboard for LC in the third set. A kill by Alvarez from Lauren West stretched the lead to 3-1. The Pirates crept back to tie the set at 8-8 before taking a 12-9 lead. Whitworth went on to win the set 25-17.
Whitworth took control of the match in the fourth set, taking a commanding 23-13 lead. The Warriors took advantage of costly Pirate errors to go on a five-point run that included four attack errors by Whitworth, but the Pirates eventually won the set 25-18 to tie the match 2-2.
LC opened the deciding set with three-straight points on kills from Alvarez and Kaawa. Lawrence went back-to-back to push the advantage to 7-2 and force a Pirate timeout. Lawrence brought down her ninth kill of the night to put LC up 8-3 as the teams switched sides. Alvarez was dominant on the court with her 13th kill of the match to give the Warriors a 12-9 advantage, but the Pirates fought back to even the set at 14-14. After a Pirate attack error, Miller stepped up with the match-ending kill to end the set at 16-14.
Alvarez led the Warriors with 13 kills on the night, and Kaawa was just behind her with 12. Lawrence added nine and West dished out 46 assists. Gionni Brown recorded 19 digs while Jordan Phelan had 15. Kaawa completed her double-double with 15 digs to go with her 12 kills.
The Warriors open the second half of Frontier Conference play next Friday during LCSC's Homecoming Weekend. They look to avenge their five-set loss to Providence on Oct. 19 at 7 p.m. on the Activity Center.
