The Pioneer volleyball team remained in a tie for first place with a 25-10, 25-23, 25-16 victory over the Whitman Missionaries Friday night at the Pamplin Sports Center. Both teams wore special pink jerseys for Dig Pink Night, a promotion to raise breast cancer awareness.

The Pioneers dominated the first set, earning a 25-10 victory over the visiting Whitman Missionaries. Kelsey Clark (senior, Eagle Creek, Ore.) helped lead the Pioneers in the set, landing five kills on 11 sets. She had a hand in three of the Pioneers six blocks in the set, with two solo and one assisted.

The second set was much closer. With Whitman trailing by two, 11-8, they got a sideout on a kill by Emily Nickels. A service ace by Katie Richards followed by back-to-back kills by outside hitter Alex Graves gave Whitman the 12-11 advantage. After both teams traded leads and errors, the Pioneers found themselves up by a point, 17-16. Back-to-back kills by Katherine Fiedler (sophomore, San Diego, Calif.) and Kelsey Neussl (senior, Juneau, Alaska) gave the momentum and a three-point lead, 19-16, to the Pioneers. Still leading by two points late in the set, 21-19, the Pioneers took advantage of three straight Whitman errors to get to set point, 24-19. The Pioneers gave three points back on errors, with Whitman pulling within a point, 24-23, before a big hit by Kelsey Clark finished off the Missionaries and secured a 25-23 victory for the Pioneers.

After the break, an inspired Missionaries team, lead by the hard hitting of Alex Graves, took the early lead in the third set, going up 12-8. The Pioneers went on a 6-0 run fon four Whitman errors, a block by Katherine Fielder, and a kill by Neussl, taking a 14-12 lead. Alex Graves landed her 13th kill of the match to pull her team back within one, 14-13, but that was as close as Whitman would get to the Pioneers again in the match, with Jessamy Holland (junior, Honolulu, Hawaii) landing three kills in the late points to help set the Pioneers up with set point at 24-15. Whitman's Emily Nickels landed a kill to stave off one match point, but once again it was the Pioneers' Kelsey Clark coming up with the big hit to close out the set with a 25-16 score and giving the Pioneers a 3-0 sweep of the Missionaries.

Alex Graves had a match-high 14 kills and a match-high 18 digs for the Missionaries. Katie Miller had 8 kills.

For the Pioneers, Kesley Clark led the team with 9 kills. She also has two solo blocks and a block-assist. Jessamy Holland had 8 kills on 15 sets with no errors for a .533 attack percentage. Holland also had 11 digs and a solo block. Katherine Fiedler also had a strong hitting performance, landing 7 kills on 14 sets. She had three solo blocks and a block assist.

With the victory, the Pioneers improve to 12-8 overall and 7-2 in the Northwest Conference. They remain in a three-way tie for first place in the NWC with both Puget Sound and Pacific Lutheran also winning on Friday night. Whitman falls to 0-18 (0-9 NWC).

Friday was also "Dig Pink" night. As part of a Breast Cancer Awareness night promotion, both teams wore special pink jerseys, with the Missionaries in a light pink and the Pioneers in a darker pink. Fans made donations during the match for the Sideout Foundation, a volleyball charity organization that distributes donations among research teams focused on target therapies and molecular profiling as well as "living with cancer" organizations nationwide.

The Pioneers are back home Saturday night, hosting the Whitworth Pirates (11-10, 4-5 NWC) in an early 5pm match at Pamplin.