SPOKANE, Wash. – The Whitworth volleyball team will take a six-match winning streak into a crucial weekend that could decide the Northwest Conference regular season crown and top seed for the upcoming NWC tournament. The Pirates will play at Puget Sound on Friday night (7:00 pm), followed by a match at league-leading Pacific Lutheran on Saturday night (6:00 pm).
Check the Whitworth volleyball schedule (link above-right) for up-to-date access to live results.
The Pirates: Whitworth (13-7 overall, 10-2 NWC) earned a pair of home sweeps last weekend, including one over George Fox that gave the Bucs sole possession of second place in the NWC standings.
The Pirates hit .307 as a team in Friday's 25-13, 25-18, 25-10 win over visiting Pacific (Ore.). Unlike the previous contest between these two squads, this one was never in doubt. Kaity Barr had nine kills and no errors in 11 attempts for a hitting percentage of .818. Cassidy Franklin was close behind with nine kills and only one error in 13 attacks (.615). Barr added an ace, a solo block and four block assists for a match-high 13 points. Josephine Thompson (18) and Mya Rodriguez (14) combined for 32 assists on 34 total kills. Taylor Miche had ten digs. Whitworth swept the season series against Pacific.
The Pirates were anxious for a rematch with George Fox after the Bruins pulled out a five-set victory over Whitworth last month in Newberg. Saturday's contest played out much differently as the Bucs ran away with a 25-14, 25-23, 25-17 win. Amblessed Okemgbo had a match-high 11 kills and added three block assists for 12.5 points. Barr was nearly unstoppable again with eight kills, no errors, on 12 attacks for a .667 hitting percentage. Rodriguez (17) and Thompson (14) combined for 31 assists as Whitworth hit .254. Miche had 15 digs and dished eight assists of her own. Franklin was in on seven of the Pirates' nine blocks.
Barr Honored, And Again: Kaity Barr is once again an NWC Volleyball Student-Athlete of the Week, but this time she is the Offensive winner. Barr is the first player in the NWC this season to earn an NWC volleyball award on both offense and defense. She hit .739 over two matches, with 17 kills and no errors in 23 attacks and led the Pirates with 22 total points in six sets. Barr was the defensive winner on September 11th and October 16th, while Ella Jimenez was the NWC's Offensive Student-Athlete of the Week on Oct. 9th.
NWC Standings Update: Pacific Lutheran (12-0) leads the conference with four matches to play, two games ahead of Whitworth (10-2) and three ahead of George Fox (9-3) in the standings. Puget Sound is 7-5 and Willamette is 6-6, battling for the final berth. The top four teams will make the first-ever NWC tournament at the end of the season and the Pirates can clinch a spot with one more win.
Raising the Barr: Kaity Barr leads NWC players, and ranks 5th in all of NCAA Division III, in blocking (1.24 per set). Barr is joined among NWC leaders by Cassidy Franklin (3rd in the NWC, 0.94 blocks per set) and Abigail Hudson (8th, 0.81). That trio is a big reason Whitworth leads the conference and ranks fifth as a team in NCAA Division III in blocks per set (2.49).
Barr also leads the NWC and ranks 8th in NCAA DIII in hitting percentage (.404). She is 9th in the conference in service aces (0.45 per set). Ella Jimenez ranks seventh in the conference in kills per set (2.94), while Taylor Miche ranks seventh in the conference in digs per set (4.14).
NWC Poll: Whitworth finished third in the Northwest Conference preseason coaches poll with 51 points, behind Puget Sound (62) and Pacific Lutheran (53). Puget Sound, the other co-champion with the Pirates last season, got six first place votes, PLU got one and Whitworth received two.
The Coach: Kati Bodecker has a record of 181-74 heading into her 11th season guiding the Pirates. She is a four-time Northwest Conference Coach of the Year after leading Whitworth to five NWC championships in her first nine seasons. She is 128-28 in conference matches during that time. Bodecker has also directed the Pirates to five appearances in the NCAA Division III tournament (2014, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2021). In 2013 she coached the Bucs to a 15-13 record, becoming the first Whitworth volleyball coach to post a winning record in her first season since Margaret Campbell in 1990. She previously had been the head coach at Priest River High School, leading the Spartans to five state tournament appearances, including a runner-up finish in 2012. She was a four-year starter at the University of Idaho, helping lead the Vandals to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances as a sophomore and junior.
The Opponents: Puget Sound, the defending co-champions of the NWC with Whitworth in 2022, is 14-6 overall and 7-5 in the NWC. The Loggers were eliminated from repeating as champions last Wednesday by a 3-2 home loss to PLU, after they led 2-0. Puget Sound bounced back to beat Lewis & Clark 3-1 on Friday. The Loggers rank second in the NWC in both blocks per set (2.10) and digs per set (17.57), a rare combination. Senior MB Avery Allemann was a first team All-NWC honoree in 2022 and she averages 1.88 kills and 1.00 blocks per set this season. Sophomore Akira Anderson leads the NWC in service aces per set (0.59). Whitworth defeated Puget Sound 3-0 in Spokane on September 29th, hitting .310 as a team behind Logan Spencer's 10 kills.
Pacific Lutheran (13-7 overall, 12-0 NWC) can clinch the outright NWC regular season championship with wins over Whitman (Friday night) and Whitworth this weekend. The Lutes rank 8th in NCAA Division III in digs per set (19.58) and lead the NWC by a wide margin. PLU is also very good offensively, leading the conference in kills (12.01) and assists (11.66) per set. Halle Hetzler (Gr. Libero) is the reigning NWC Player of the Year and she leads all of NCAA Division III in digs per set. Senior OH Baylee Johnson leads the offense, averaging 3.27 kills per set. The Lutes defeated the Pirates 3-1 in Spokane on September 30th, despite 10 kills and six blocks from Cassidy Franklin.
Coming Up: Whitworth will close the regular season with matches at Whitman (Nov. 1) and at home against Linfield (Nov. 4).
