SPOKANE, Wash.—Whitworth hopes of posting the first perfect conference record in school history survived a massive upset bid from Whitman College on Wednesday night as the visiting Pirates prevailed 24-26, 25-21, 15-25, 25-17, 18-16.
The Pirates (20-2 overall, 15-0 NWC) will try to complete their first undefeated conference season on Friday at home against Lewis & Clark. Whitman (6-18, 4-11) served for the match three times in the final set.
The teams traded points and scoring runs in a seesaw first set that led to a 26-24 Whitman victory. After Whitworth scored the first point of the set, the Blues came back with a five-point run, scoring three of those points from Pirate attack errors. Whitworth responded with a four-point run of their own, led by a Joelle Forbes service ace and kills by Cassidy Franklin and Maddie Lee. Whitman capitalized on Pirate errors for the remainder of the set and notched two back-to-back kills to take the match. The Blues had three blocks and three service aces in the frame.
Whitworth rallied back in the second set by trading aces and errors with the Whitman. Neither team scored more than four consecutive points in the frame. The Pirates committed four attack errors and two service errors, and the Blues committed seven attack errors and three service errors in the frame. Whitworth hit .237 in the frame compared to Whitman's .154.
The Pirates had an error-filled third set, hitting only .073 as a team. The Blues went on a six-point run led by Sydney London kills and points from Whitworth errors to go up 13-6. Whitworth failed to rally, allowing another six-point run from Whitman. The Pirates had only eight total kills in the set and had five attack errors and one service error. The Blues had three more service aces in the third frame.
The Pirates rallied again in the fourth frame, hitting .398 as a team. They recorded sixteen kills in the set and had only two attack errors compared to Whitman's six. Kaity Barr and Lee were crucial in the fourth set, recording kills on their way to tallying 34 combined kills in the match. The Blues hit their team worst .095 in the fourth set, a significant drop from .250 in the previous set.
The final set was another seesaw battle that played to eighteen points and ended on a Whitman attack error. No team scored more than three points in a row, and the Blues served for the match at 14-13, 15-14, and 16-15 before Whitworth scored the final three points to take the set.
Barr and Lee both finished with 17 kills apiece, and Franklin finished with ten. Barr also had four solo blocks for 21 points in the match. The Blues' Kenzie Martinez and Nicole Kelly each had 16 kills, and Christina Boxberger finished with ten. Saylor Anderson and Forbes each finished with 27 assists. Eva Millan also had 24 digs in the victory.
