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Oct. 8, 2009

Box Score

BELLINGHAM, Wash. - Outside hitter Marlayna Geary (Fr., Tacoma/Bellarmine Prep) had a career-high 29 kills, but it wasn't enough as Western Washington University fell to Northwest Nazarene University, 20-25, 26-24, 23-25, 26-24, 15-13, on Thursday in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference volleyball match on Haggen Court at Sam Carver Gymnasium.

The Vikings fell to 11-7 overall and 4-3 in the GNAC.

Northwest Nazarene improved to 11-8 overall and 5-2 in the GNAC. Cammy Dranginis and Lindsay Grant led the Crusaders with 14 kills each and Dranginis added five blocks.

The Vikings broke away from a 17-17 tie to win the first set and appeared poised to take a commanding two-set advantage when they held a 24-21 lead in the second frame, but the Crusaders rallied with five straight points to even the match.

Western trailed on only two points in winning the third set. In the fourth set, the score was tied at 24-24 before kills by the Crusaders' Amy Higginson and Alaina Barber sent the match to a fifth set.

The Vikings had a 10-9 lead in the final frame, but Northwest Nazarene took control by scoring four of the next five points and eventually closed out the match on a kill by Grant.

Middle blocker Emily Jepsen (So., Kennewick/Kamiakin), who leads GNAC in blocks, had 12 kills, 14 digs and six blocks for the Vikings.

The Crusaders, who entered the match leading NCAA II in digs per set at 18.78, had 122 for the match, with Haley Hevern getting 36 and Grant adding 23.

Libero Allison Gotz (Jr., Bothell/Archbishop Murphy) had 31 digs for Western, which also had 122 as a team. Jordyn Bailey (Jr., Wenatchee) added 26.

It was the third loss in eight home matches for Western this season, although the Vikings are still 86-10 at Carver Gym during coach Diane Flick's 10 seasons.

It was "Dig Pink" night at Carver Gym, part of a National Breast Cancer awareness rally that is taking place at colleges throughout the month of October to help educate and raise funds to help fight breast cancer.

The Vikings travel to Saint Martin's on Saturday (7 p.m.) for a GNAC counter.