SPOKANE, Wash.—Maddie Lee and Abigail Hudson combined for 29 kills to lead Whitworth to a 24-26, 25-17, 25-21, 25-15 win over visiting Puget Sound to keep the Pirates undefeated in Northwest Conference play.

The Bucs improve to 10-2 overall and 5-0 in the NWC, heading into Saturday's showdown with PLU (8-6, 5-0) for sole possession of first place in the conference standings.

Puget Sound (8-5, 2-3 NWC) scored the first four points of the first set on Whitworth attack errors and a kill by Jordan Holman. The Loggers led the match until hitting from Maddie Lee and Abigial Hudson tied the frame at 20-20. Blocking by Cassidy Franklin and Abby Wolverton gave Whitworth its first lead but kills by Katherine Carley and Avery Alleman propelled the Loggers to victory. Puget Sound hit its match-best .205.

The Loggers got out to a 4-0 start in the second set as well, but the Pirates rallied back quickly on two straight attack errors and a Franklin kill to tie 4-4. The set had six ties in total. Wolverton and Lee led the Whitworth offense in the second set with four kills each.

The back-and-forth third frame also contained six ties. The Pirates spread their offense around in the set, with Lee recording five kills, Franklin recording six, and Kaity Barr with four. In an out-of-system Whitworth offense, setter Saylor Anderson had nine digs, and libero Eva Milan only recorded six.

The Pirates took the lead behind Lee and Hudson in the fourth set at 3-2 and never trailed. Lee notched five kills and hit her match best .364. Hudson tallied three more kills and hit .400. Hudson also recorded a solo block in the set.

Alleman led the Logger offense with 11 kills in the match and a .136 average.

Lee led Whitworth with 17 total kills, and Franklin followed close behind with 12. Barr was in on six blocks and Joelle Forbes served four of the Pirates' eight aces.