PARKLAND, Wash. – Whitworth University clinched a share of the 2025 Northwest Conference volleyball championship and the right to host next week's NWC tournament with a hard-fought 3-1 win at Pacific Lutheran on Saturday night.
The Pirates improved to 20-6 overall and 14-2 in the NWC with a 15-25, 25-23, 25-21, 25-23 victory over the Lutes (14-9, 12-4), which ended PLU's seven-match winning streak. Based on the season sweep of the third place Lutes, Whitworth claims the league's tiebreaker with co-champion Puget Sound (18-7, 14-2). The Loggers split with PLU this season.
Only one night after an emotionally draining win at UPS, Whitworth looked out of sorts in the first set against the Lutes. PLU broke away from a 7-7 tie with a 7-1 run, going up 14-8 after consecutive aces. Three straight attack errors allowed the Lutes to lead 23-12 before a kill from Alexis Eggert finished off the set 25-15. PLU served five aces in the opening set and Whitworth hit only .048.
The Pirates bounced back and never trailed in the second game. A kill by Amblessed Okemgbo gave Whitworth a 14-9 lead before Lauren Kremer's kill made it 19-11. PLU fought back to within 22-20 and 24-23 before Lindsey Short ended the set at 25-23 with a kill. Kremer had five kills in the second set while Short had three.
An Eggert kill gave PLU a 10-8 lead in the third set and she drilled another to extend the margin to 14-10. The Pirates answered with a 7-1 run, going up 17-15 on a kill from Short. PLU tied it 17-17 before Whitworth finished with an 8-4 run, getting the winning point at 25-21 on a Lute service error. Short had five kills in the third game as the Pirates hit .243.
The fourth set featured 11 ties and three lead changes. PLU led 11-8 after an ace by Macy Matsushima and the Lutes kept it at a three-point margin (17-14) following an ace by Ayre Takamoto. The Bucs used a quick 5-1 run to take a 19-18 lead on Kremer's kill. The Lutes tied the set at 23-23 on a block of Short, but Short got the last laugh with the match's final kill. She had five more kills in the fourth game, while Alyssa Baird had four. Whitworth hit .311 to help put the match away.
Kremer led the Pirates with 18.5 points on 16 kills (.382) with one solo block and three block assists. Short finished with 15 kills (.429) while Baird had 11. Josephine Thompson dished 28 assists, and Mya Rodriguez added 19 assists and three aces. Bryanna Dodson hustled for a career-high 36 digs. Paige McKenzie and Ali Bush each had five block assists.
Whitworth hit .199 in the contest and led in kills 57-51. Both teams had 10 service aces, but the Pirates had an advantage in blocks 9.0 – 2.0.
Eggert led PLU with 15 kills while Takamoto had 38 assists. Matsushima served half of her team's aces.
The 2025 NWC tournament will take place November 14-15 at Whitworth with the semifinals on Friday night and championship on Saturday. The NWC office will set match times on Monday. Top-seeded Whitworth will host 4th-seeded Willamette in one semifinal, while 3rd-seeded PLU battles 2nd-seeded Puget Sound in the other semifinal.
The 2025 NWC co-championship is Whitworth's eighth in head coach Kati Bodecker's 13 seasons guiding the Pirates.
