Box score, play-by-play

NAMPA, Idaho – Come Thursday night, the Seattle Pacific Falcons finally will have the homecourt advantage for the first time this volleyball season.

They'll also have a good amount of momentum.

Lindsey Wodrich hammered 17 kills and had her second double-double of the week, and Paige Hoffman added a season-high 14 on Saturday night, leading 16th-ranked Seattle Pacific to a 3-1 victory against Northwest Nazarene in a Great Northwest Athletic Association volleyball match.

Scores in the Johnson Sports Center were 25-18, 25-19, 21-25, 25-17.

That gave the Falcons a sweep of their first two Great Northwest Athletic Conference matches of the year and a 7-3 overall record in playing their first 10 matches on the road.

Now, they get to serve it up in Brougham Pavilion on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. against Western Oregon.

“We're happy with where we are so far. We've been learning a lot about ourselves through the losses and the wins,” SPU coach Chris Johnson said. “It was a little bit shaky tonight, but we had a lot of good serving runs. We passed pretty well, we attacked well at times, and overall, we did a good job of managing the match.”

Senior outside hitter Wodrich (Richland, Wash./Richland HS) came up with 15 digs in addition to her 17 kills. That was her fifth double-double of the season and the 24th of her career after going for 18 kills and 12 digs in Thursday's 3-1 GNAC-opening victory at Central Washington.

Sophomore middle blocker Nikki Lowell (Claremont, Calif.) had 12 kills for SPU and hit .500 for the night with just one error on 22 swings.

Sophomore setter Shelby Swanson (Kennewick, Wash./Kamiakin HS) earned 52 assists – the second time this week she has topped 50. Swanson racked up a career-high 58 assists in Thursday's 3-1 victory at Central Washington. She is now just 95 assists away from 2,000 for her career.

Senior libero Anna Herold (Bothell, Wash./Shorecrest HS) had 30 digs.

The Falcons took charge of the decisive fourth game with a 10-1 run, going from 5-4 down to 14-6 up. The lead grew as large as 12 at 22-10.

Seattle Pacific led for all but the opening moments of Game 1, and never trailed in Game 2. In that second game, a point originally awarded to Northwest Nazarene (4-4, 2-2 GNAC) that would have cut the Falcons' lead to18-16 was taken down as the officials ruled for a replay. SPU won that point and the next two after that to make it 21-15 on the way to taking a two-game lead into the intermission.

The third game was tied at 14-14 when the Crusaders ran off three straight points to go in front for good.

Both teams had 141 attacks, but SPU totaled 20 more kills for the match (56-36) and hit .220. Northwest Nazarene hit just .142.

“We stayed disciplined on defense by stopping when the opponent was hitting the ball and by running down the ball,” Johnson said. “They gave us a lot of unorthodox stuff, so just being able to stay disciplined was good.”

After a pair of four-match preseason tournaments – one in Honolulu, the other in Denver – plus their first two conference matches all out of town, the Falcons are eager to play in Brougham after spending the past five weeks just practicing in there.

“We're looking forward to it for sure,” Johnson said. “Every GNAC match is going to be tough.”


NCAA VOLLEYBALL
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Harmon & Elizabeth Johnson Sports Center / Nampa, Idaho

(No. 16) Seattle Pacific 3, Northwest Nazarene 1

Game scores – 25-18, 25-19, 21-25, 25-17.

Service aces – SPU 4 (Lindsey Wodrich 2, Angie Pricco 2), NNU 8 (Michelle Terpstra 4).
Kills – SPU 56 (Wodrich 17, Paige Hoffman 14, Nikki Lowell 12), NNU 36 (Kaitlyn Tubolski 11).
Assists – SPU 55 (Shelby Swanson 52), NNU 31 (Terpstra 13).
Digs – SPU 76 (Anna Herold 30, Wodirch 15, Brianna Leenders 12), NNU 52 (Kailey Trautmann 18).
Blocks – SPU 8 / 2 solo (Swanson 2 / 1 solo, Cailin Fellows 2 / 0 solo, Lowell 2 / 0 solo), NNU 14 / 0 solo (Becky Flores 4 / 0.
Hitting (kills-errors-total attacks) – SPU 56-25-141--.220 (Lowell 12-1-22--.500, Hoffman 14-5-32--.281), NNU 36-16-141--.142 (Haley Abbott 7-3-18--.222).
Attendance – 322.

Records – Seattle Pacific 7-3, 2-0 GNAC. Northwest Nazarene 4-4, 2-2 GNAC.

Next match – Western Oregon at Seattle Pacific, Thursday, Brougham Pavilion, 7:30 p.m.