Box Score SPOKANE, Wash. – Whitworth earned its eighth straight volleyball win with a sweep of visiting Linfield on Saturday night at the Whitworth Fieldhouse.
The Pirates also won their 12th Northwest Conference match in a row with the 25-21, 25-15, 25-15 win over the Wildcats, improving to 19-5 overall and 12-2 in the NWC.
Whitworth limited Linfield (9-10 overall, 8-6 NWC) to a hitting percentage of only 0.030. While Brenna Bruil and Cassandra Mendoza both drilled ten kills to reach double figures, Linfield's leader was Karly Jones with only six kills in the match.
"I thought we came out with better urgency and effort tonight," said Pirate head coach Kati Bodecker. "We blocked really well and were able to shut them down offensively. We are just trying to focus on every single point and not let our effort slide until we have secured the set."
The opening set was the closest of the night. Linfield took a 10-8 lead on Jones' kill and continued to lead by two at 17-15 following a kill by Jamie Talbo. But that was where Whitworth turned the tide, using a 9-2 run to take control. Shawna Korshavn's kill ended the set at 25-21 in Whitworth's favor.
Linfield struggled to find any offensive consistency in either the second or third set. The Wildcats' errors (17) in those two frames were more than their kills (13).
Meanwhile Whitworth got a nice boost from Corinne Bell, who had four of her six kills off of the bench in the second set.
Maddye Dinsmore finished with 35 assists and Mallorie Schoesler had 17 digs for the Pirates.
Courtney Uyeda had a match-high 20 digs for Linfield, while Talbo finished with a dozen assists and four kills.
Whitworth remains tied with Pacific Lutheran for first place in the NWC standings with two matches to play for each team.
