NEWBERG, Ore.—Lewis & Clark volleyball roared out to a 1-0 lead but couldn't hold on, in a 3-1 loss to host George Fox University in both team's Northwest Conference (NWC) opener.
THE BASICS
George Fox University 3, Lewis & Clark 1
(Lewis & Clark 1-5, 0-1 NWC)
(George Fox 4-4, 1-0 NWC)
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Pioneers raced out to a 7-0 lead in the first set and never trailed en-route to a 25-19 victory in their first NWC set of the season. After George Fox took the second and third sets (25-14, 25-10), Lewis & Clark came back and played the Bruins extremely competitively in the final set. The two sides were tied 19-19 late in the set, before the hosts went on a 6-2 run to clinch the match win.
Freshman
Ellie Weber led the Pioneers with a career-high 11 kills in her first collegiate conference match. She posted five of her kills in the first set alone and added two aces, two block assists and five digs.
Sophomore
Debi Chun tied her season-high with 9 kills and chipped in nine digs. Junior
Izzy Willis and sophomore
Annika Traxler added seven kills apiece.
Junior libero
Katie Shimaura posted a career-high 26 digs to lead all players in the match. Shimaura tacked on four assists and tied for the team-lead with two aces.
Sophomore
Bethany Ballesteros (15 assists) and junior
Kelsie Nakashima (9 assists, 15 digs) combined to record 24 of the team's 32 assists.
Kassandra Staton (11 kills) led a balanced George Fox attack that saw five players finish with seven or more kills.
Lewis & Clark jumped out to a terrific start to the match. The Pioneers won the opening point off of a Bruins serve and then Shimaura guided the team to a 7-0 lead thanks to a strong serving run. The Pioneers libero came up with a pair of service aces during a run.
It looked like the hosts may get back into the set when they cut the deficit to 8-7 but the Pioneers used a 6-0 run on Weber's serve, to reassume control and they never let George Fox get closer than five points the rest of the set.
The second set started out with the two teams trading points but a Bruins run gave them control and the Pioneers struggled to gain momentum back until the fourth set.
George Fox jumped out to an early lead for the third-straight set (8-4) but Lewis & Clark battled back to take their first lead since early in the second set with a 16-15 advantage.
The two sides would trade leads until the set was tied 19-19. The Bruins would scored three-straight points to take a 22-19 lead and force a Pioneers timeout. Chun came through with a kill to stop the run and a block from Willis and
Emma Ehlers forced a side-out at 23-21. Unfortunately, the Pioneers couldn't come through with a sustained run of their own as the hosts held on for a 25-21 set win.
BY THE NUMBERS
- Shimaura's 26 digs are 10 more than her previous season-high and four more than her previous career-high. She posted 22 digs in the Pioneers season-opener last year (September 1, 2021). It's only the third time in her career she has posted 20+ digs.
- The Pioneers have now won the first set in four of their six matches.
- Weber has posted double-digit kills in two of her first six collegiate matches. Her previous career career-high came on September 3, when she posted 10 kills against Hollins College .
- Both teams finished with 10 block assists in the match. Ehlers led the Pioneers with 4 blocks assists.
- With the loss, Lewis & Clark falls to 38-50 all-time against the Bruins.
WHO'S NEXT
The Pioneers will wrap up their seven-match road trip to begin the season on Saturday, when they travel to take on NWC foe Linfield University at 6 p.m.
