Box score, play-by-play
       PHOTO GALLERY

SEATTLE – Officially, Sarah Risser will celebrate volleyball Senior Night on Saturday.

Unofficially, the Seattle Pacific standout got a bit of a jump on things on Thursday.

Risser had 12 kills and 15 digs – one of three Falcon players with a double-double – and Lindsey Wodrich led with 14 kills and came up with 14 digs as 18th-ranked SPU bounced back from a Game 1 loss for a 3-1 victory against 13th-ranked Western Washington.

Scores of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference contest in Brougham Pavilion were 20-25, 25-19, 25-15, 25-18.





The win vaulted the Falcons (22-2, 14-2 GNAC) past Western (16-3, 13-2) back into first place. SPU plays host to Simon Fraser on Saturday night at 7 in its home finale – Senior Night for Risser (Santa Barbara, Calif.) and Joelle Perez (Vancouver, Wash./Heritage HS), then winds up the regular season next Saturday at Montana State Billings.

“They're an in-state rival, and we love to take it to them. So to beat them at home one last time feels very nice,” said Risser, whose double-double was her 10th of the season, the 29th of her career, and now is just 8.5 points away from 1,000 for her career. “The difference tonight was we came together and we played as a team. We knew the game play a little better this time and went with it and trusted each other to put it together.

Junior outside hitter Wodrich (Richland, Wash./Richland HS) logged her second straight double-double, as did sophomore setter Shelby Swanson (Kennewick, Wash./Kamiakin HS). Swanson had 40 assists and 10 digs for her sixth double-double of the year and ninth of her career. Wodrich now has seven this season and 17 for her career.

Freshman middle blocker Nikki Lowell (Claremont, Calif.) had seven blocks, including a solo for SPU.

“This was really a team effort tonight, and that's one of the reasons it's so special,” coach Chris Johnson said of the victory – a marked reversal of the Oct. 9 match between the two teams in Bellingham, which Western swept, 25-22, 25-23, 25-18. “Everyone brought their best game.”

That was especially true after Game 1. The Falcons had 10 attack errors in that one – then just made seven in the final three games combined. The Vikings used a 7-0 run to take charge of the opener, and, thanks in part to just two hitting errors in that one, never relinquished that lead.

SPU never trailed in Game 2, and took command with a 7-0 turn that stretched a tenuous 16-14 lead into a commanding 23-14. The Falcons hit a whopping .438 in that game with 15 kills and just one error on 32 attacks.

“After every game, it's 0-0, it's a clean slate – that's what we tell ourselves,” Risser said.”

In the third game, it was an 8-1 run that gave the Falcons control as they went from 11-9 up to 20-11. Then, after going up 9-4 in the fourth game, SPU never let Western get closer than four the rest of the night. A five-point surge in the middle of that game, which included a Swanson ace, a Paige Hoffman kill and a well-placed tip by Risser helped put the Falcons up, 21-11.

Even as his team fell short in the opener, Johnson liked the way SPU responded.

“It was good to see us get control of it, and not only get control of it, but continue to stay aggressive,” Johnson said. “That was something that was in our favor tonight the way we were the aggressor, both serving and hitting.

That approach served the Falcons especially well after they pulled even at a game apiece.

“We played well that second game, we knew what was working, and we said just to keep going at them,” Johnson said. “We did a much better job of keeping their defense guessing. It made it hard for (the Vikings) to know where we were going to hit it.”

SPU wound up hitting.226 (50 kills, 17 errors on 146 total attacks) for the night. Western Washington hit just .107 with 43 kills and 27 errors on 150 swings.


NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Brougham Pavilion/Seattle, Wash.

(No. 18) Seattle Pacific 3, (No. 13) Western Washington 1

Game scores – 20-25, 25-19, 25-15, 25-18.

Service aces – WWU: Two players with 1. SPU: Sarah Risser 2.
Kills – WWU: Emily Jepsen 11, Marlayna Geary 10. SPU: Lindsey Wodrich 14, Risser 12.
Assists – WWU: Kari Rice 36. SPU: Shelby Swanson 40.
Blocks – WWU: Bailey Jones 2, Kathryn Mertens 2, Jepsen 2. SPU: Nikki Lowell 7, Paige Hoffman 4, Wodrich 4, Angie Pricco 4.
Digs – WWU: Allison Gotz 24, Megan Amundson 13. SPU: Anna Herold 20, Risser 15, Wodrich 14, Swanson 10.
Hitting (kills-errors-total attacks) – WWU: Mertens 6-3-16--.188, Jepsen 11-7-25--.160, WWU 43-27-150--.107. SPU: Pricco 6-0-9--.667, Hoffman 9-1-27--.296, Lowell 7-2-21--.238, SPU 50-17-146--.226.
Attendance – 781.

Records – Seattlke Pacific 22-2, 14-2 GNAC. Western Washington 16-3, 13-2 GNAC.

Next match – Simon Fraser at Seattle Pacific, Saturday, Brougham Pavilion, 7 p.m.