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SEATTLE – Nikki Lowell says her game plan is simply to do a better job in the current match than she did in the previous one.

On Monday night, let the record -- and the record book – show that Lowell played pretty close to perfect.

At least as far as her hitting was concerned.

Lowell set a Seattle Pacific single-match hitting record, and Sarah Risser hammered 15 kills as the 15th-ranked Falcons kept their volleyball record perfect with a 3-0 sweep of Montana State Billings.

Scores in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference match in Brougham Pavilion were 25-16, 25-12, 25-22.




Lowell (Claremont, Calif.), a redshirt freshman middle blocker, hit at an .833 clip for the match, with 10 kills and no errors on 12 total attacks. That broke the old single-match record of .750 set by Robin De Jong in a conference match at Saint Martin's on Nov. 6, 2008.

“I just come out and try to do the best job that I can do,” said the 5-foot-10 Lowell, who also had two blocks and was a menace all night at the net against Billings. “I would rather get a kill, but blocking is a lot of fun, too. I would love to get a double-double (for kills and blocks), but it's kind of hard to do that in just three games.”

Indeed, Monday's match went into the books as the fourth straight sweep for Seattle Pacific (13-0, 5-0 GNAC) and its eighth this season.

But Lowell and the rest of the Falcons know that the schedule is just going to get tougher – starting on Thursday night in Brougham Pavilion when defending champion Alaska Anchorage comes to visit at 7 p.m.

“We feel like we need to not get content, because we have a big match on Thursday, and we need to come out and do our best,” Lowell said. “We have to focus and do what we need to do on our side of the court.”

Senior outside hitter Risser (Santa Barbara, Calif.) got her 15 kills on 29 attacks, and hit .310 for the match.

Junior outside hitter Lindsey Wodrich (Richland, Wash./Richland HS) led the Falcons with 13 digs, and sophomore setter Shelby Swanson (Kennewick, Wash./Kamiakin HS) had 35 assists.

“We opened up really strong and had a great first couple of games,” said coach Chris Johnson, who picked up his 99th coaching victory – all with Seattle Pacific. “We served tough and did a sound job both offensively and defensively. The third game, we were not quite on our game. We just tried to see if they could get themselves fired up. We finally had to take that time out (when SPU was down, 20-18), and they came out of that really well.”

Seattle Pacific (13-0, 5-0 GNAC) never trailed through the first two games, then jumped to a 7-3 lead in Game 3. Montana State Billings (1-12, 1-4 GNAC) climbed back into an 8-8 tie, then took its first lead of the night at 9-8.




The teams went back and forth after that, with the Yellowjackets up 21-20 when SPU proceeded to score five of the final six points. The Falcons clinched it, appropriately enough, on a kill by Lowell.

“That's just an amazing performance by any standards,” Johnson said of Lowell's hitting. “That is not an easy thing to do.”

Seattle Pacific hit a season-best .337 for the mach (41 kills, 12 errors on 86 attacks). Billings hit just .049 (20 kills, 16 errors on 81 attacks). That marked the fourth straight match the Falcons have kept their opponent to less than .100 hitting.

“We mesh really well as a team this year. We just have this rhythm,” Swanson said, “where our defense is picking up everything, and our offense puts the ball away. It's just amazing."


NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
Monday, September 27, 2010
Brougham Pavilion/Seattle, Wash.

(No. 15) Seattle Pacific 3, Montana State Billings 0

Game scores – 25-6, 25-12, 25-22.

Service aces – SPU: Sarah Risser 2, Lindsey Wodrich 2. MSUB: Three players with 1.
Kills – SPU: Risser 15, Nikki Lowell 10, Wodrich 8. MSUB: Jennifer Boe 6, Melissa Porter 5.
Assists – SPU: Shelby Swanson 35. MSUB: Brooke Tolman 15.
Blocks – SPU: Paige Hoffman 3, Angie Pricco 3, Wodrich 2, Lowell 2. MSUB: Tolman 2, Jody Lutz 2, Kayla Neumiller 2, Emma Miller 2.
Digs – SPU: Wodrich 13, Anna Herold 9. MSUB: Adrienne Kelso 7.
Hitting – SPU: Lowell 10-0-12--.833, Risser 15-6-29--.310, Hoffman 4-0-13-.308, SPU 41-12-86--.337. MSUB: Neumiller 3-1-10--.200, Melissa Porter 5-3-15--.133, MSUB 20-16-81--.049.
Attendance – 183.

Records – Seattle Pacific 13-0, 5-0 GNAC. Montana State Billings 1-12, 1-4 GNAC.

Next match – Alaska Anchorage at Seattle Pacific, Thursday, Brougham Pavilion, 7 p.m.