SPOKANE, Wash. – Whitworth completed its most important volleyball weekend in three seasons with a 3-1 win over visiting Puget Sound on Saturday evening at the Whitworth Fieldhouse.

The Pirates bounced back from a first-set setback to win 23-25, 26-24, 25-22, 25-23 and improve to 15-5 overall and 8-2 in the Northwest Conference, holding onto a share of first place with Pacific Lutheran (15-4, 8-2), who the Pirates defeated on Friday night to move into a share of the league lead.

"This weekend was huge and I was so proud of how we were able to earn two wins against two really good teams," said Whitworth head coach Kati Bodecker.  "We wanted to put ourselves in a position to be at the top of our conference and we knew that we needed to sweep this weekend to do that."

The Pirates are in the hunt for their first conference title since 2011-12.

Puget Sound (8-11, 7-3) fell out of a tie for first place with the loss.

Karina Lees, a freshman, came off of the bench in the second set to spark the Whitworth comeback.  She finished with a team-high 15 kills and added 13 digs. 

"Karina was a burst of energy for us tonight," Bodecker said.  "She always comes ready to play and tonight was no different. She was able to find ways to score when we were in an offensive slump."

The Loggers took the early initiative, jumping ahead 5-1 on a kill by Shawna Smith.  Whitworth fought back to tie the set 9-9 on back to back kills by Brenna Bruil and went ahead 16-12 on Bruil's service ace.  But UPS regrouped and went on an 11-5 run to grab a 23-21 lead on a kill by Nicolette Reynaud.  Reynaud's second kill ended the set in the Loggers' favor.

Puget Sound looked like it might go up by two sets.  The Loggers grabbed a 10-6 lead on back to back kills by Heather Sangster.  They were in control of the set 20-15 after a Whitworth attack error.  But the Pirates closed the set on an 11-4 run to turn the match's tide in their favor.  Lees had three kills during the run and Whitworth claimed the set on a kill by Bruil.

The Bucs led most of the way through the third set, going ahead 10-5 on a Logger attack error.  Whitworth still led 20-15 on a kill by Maddye Dinsmore before UPS closed to within 24-22 on a Pirate error.  But Nicole Leonard's kill on the next point gave Whitworth a 2-1 win.

The fourth set was a slugfest as UPS hit only .097 and Whitworth was limited to .023.  There were eight lead changes throughout the set and the largest lead came when the Pirates were up 3-0 out of the gate.  The Loggers appeared primed to send the match to a fifth set when Reynaud's kill gave UPS a 23-21 lead.  But the Bucs closed on a 4-0 run to win the match.

Leonard added 14 kills and 13 digs for Whitworth.  Shawna Korshavn finished with 11 kills, giving the Pirates three in double figures.  Dinsmore had 52 assists, 17 digs and three service aces. 

Smith and Emily Convery had nine kills each to lead Puget Sound.  Moira McVicar had 34 assists, while Kristen Lane posted a match-high 23 digs.

Whitworth puts its eight-match NWC winning streak on the line at Whitman on Wednesday night.