Box score, play-by-play
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SEATTLE – The Seattle Pacific Falcons brought their taking-care-of-business mindset to the volleyball court on Saturday – and then proceeded to do precisely that in their Great Northwest Athletic Conference match against Saint Martin's.

Shelby Swanson recorded the 11th double-double of her career, and Lindsey Wodrich slammed 15 kills, leading 15th-ranked SPU to a 25-9, 25-19, 25-16 sweep of the Saints in just 64 minutes in Brougham Pavilion.

The Falcons are now the last undefeated team in the GNAC and in sole possession of first place after 25th-rankede Western Washington lost at home to Alaska Anchorage on Saturday night, 27-25, 25-21, 21-25, 25-18.

Anchorage is up next for SPU on Thursday at 8 p.m. PDT in Alaska. The Falcons will be seeking to prevail at UAA for the first time since 2007.

Junior setter Swanson (Kennewick, Wash./Kamiakin HS) had 28 assists and 16 kills for SPU (9-3, 4-0 GNAC). Senior outside hitter Wodrich (Richland, Wash./Richland HS) hit .273 for the day, and also had four digs and two block-assists.





Sophomore middle blocker Nikki Lowell (Claremont, Calif.) played error-free volleyball with seven kills on 12 attacks, hitting .583. Senior outside hitter Paige Swanson recorded eight kills and just one error on 17 swings, hitting .412.

“We wanted to take care of the ball and keep it off the net, and we did a good job of that,” coach Chris Johnson said. “We wanted to play good disciplined defense and we did a good job of that, and we wanted to serve a little bitter, and we did a good job of that with nine aces.”

Freshman libero Brianna Leenders (Portland, Ore. / Sam Barlow HS) had a career-high three service aces. She had two aces twice earlier this season.

Sophomore outside hitter Nicole Schwend (Oregon City, Ore.) put down the first two kills of her career.

The Falcons never trailed in the opening game, racing to a 10-3 lead. Down 4-3 in the second game, they put six straight points together, the last five of them with Leenders serving, and never trailed again.

Saint Martin's (3-8, 2-4 GNAC) got the first two points of Game 3 coming out of the intermission. But SPU ran off the next four – the last three with Leenders serving – to move in front permanently, gradually pulling away to a 19-11 lead.

“We just took care of our side of the net,” Lowell said. “We made sure we were on our toes, and made sure we were stopped and ready to go on defense. We've really been working on that in practice, and we executed our game plan.”

Seattle Pacific has won four straight to start conference play coming off of a 2-2 trip to the Colorado Premier Challenge in Denver just prior to opening their GNAC schedule.

“We just kind of had to go back to the basics and doing what we need to do on our side – just worry about our game plan and take it to them,” Lowell said.”

Wodrich has put down double-figure kills in each of SPU's four conference matches. Lowell is hitting .435, and Hoffman is at .295 in those same four matches.

“It's just good to see that kind of consistency,” Johnson said. “Paige has always been consistent and did that again today. Nikki had a great day percentage-wise, and Shelby is making good choices distributing the ball to all of our hitters.”

The Falcons hit .264 for the match, and limited Saint Martin's to .044 hitting. Saints freshman outside hitter Kristyn Ross, who leads the team and is second in the GNAC with 139 kills, was limited to just six.


NCAA VOLLEYBALL
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.

(No. 15) Seattle Pacific 3, Saint Martin's 0

Game scores – 25-9, 25-19, 25-16.

Service aces – StM 3 (3 players with 1), SPU 9 (Brianna Leenders 3).
Kills – StM 20 (Kristyn Ross 6), SPU 38 (Lindsey Wodrich 15).
Assists – StM 20 (Cymbree Decosta 16), SPU 36 (Shelby Swanson 28).
Digs – StM 36 (Brianna Bautista 13), SPU 50 (Swanson 16, Anna Herold 14).
Blocks – StM 16 / 2 solo (Nys Allen 4 / 1 solo, Katy Ferguson 4 / 1 solo), SPU 8 / 0 solo (Wodrich 2, Nikki Lowell 2).
Hitting (kills-errors-attacks) – StM 20-16-91--.044 (Ferguson 4-1-14--.214), SPU 38-14-91--.264 (Lowell 7-0-12--.583, Paige Hoffman 8-1-17--.412, Wodrich 15-6-33--.273).
Attendance – 138.

Records – Seattle Pacific 9-3, 4-0 GNAC. Saint Martin's 3-8, 2-4 GNAC.

Next match – Seattle Pacific at Alaska Anchorage, Thursday, Sept. 29, 8 p.m. PDT.