Box Score

        Final box score, play-by-play
 
SEATTLE – Twice in three nights, the Seattle Pacific Falcons found a way to finish off games.
 
Because they did, the Falcons finished off the first half of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference schedule with back-to-back victories.
 
Madi Cavell put down 11 kills, and Jackie Arnold hit a team-leading .533 on Saturday, leading SPU to a sweep of Saint Martin's in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference volleyball match.
 
Scores in Brougham Pavilion were 25-23, 25-19, 25-16.
 




The victory gave the Falcons (9-8, 5-4 GNAC) their first 2-0 week of the season. On Thursday, SPU came from a game down twice to beat Western Oregon in five.
 
"It was really nice to have a sweep of the weekend," head coach Chris Johnson said. "We really finished well in both matches, and that was important and good for us to see. We're doing a good job of getting smarter throughout a match and learning an opponent throughout a match."

Saturday's win was the 499^th in program history. The Falcons return to the court on Thursday at 7 p.m. in Bellingham against No. 7-ranked Western Washington, which took its first GNAC loss of the season on Saturday, falling in five games at home to Alaska Anchorage. The Vikings swept SPU in Brougham Pavilion earlier this season.
 
Junior outside hitter Cavell (Keizer, Ore.) also had eight digs and two block assists for SPU. Sophomore middle blocker Arnold (Anaheim, Calif.) had nine kills and just one error on 15 attacks. She also had two block assists. Senior middle blocker Nikki Lowell had seven kills and seven block assists.


 
Junior setter Sara Biondi (Sacramento, Calif.), in addition to 13 assists played error-free with four kills on nine attacks for a .444 percentage. She also had three block assists. Junior setter Kendall Langdon (Irvine, Calif.) led the Falcons with 17 assists, and junior libero Brianna Leenders (Gresham, Ore.) set the pace with 18 digs.
 
SPU was down 23-20 in Game 1, but put the final five points on the board, the last four  with Langdon serving. A Langdon ace tied it at 23-23, then Arnold hammered a quick kill for a 24-23 lead, and Cavell clinched it with a tip.
 
"That was really important – it really helped us and gave us momentum for the rest of the night," said senior outside hitter Nicole Schwend, who had three kills and four total blocks – all of the latter on Saint Martin's outside hitter Kristyn Ross, who finished with nine kills for the night, but hit just .071, well below her .182 average. "They definitely were a team we couldn't be lax about. We really knew they were going to come out with a lot of energy and they would want to knock us off our game.
 
"We had to come out and play really hard and not take anything for granted."
 
SPU scored four straight to snap a 10-10 tie in the second game and led the rest of the way. The third game was tied eight times, the last of those at 11-11. It was 15-13 for the Falcons when they ran off seven straight to make it 22-13. Sophomore outside hitter Ellie Britt (Orange, Calif.) served the last six of those points, the first of which was an ace.
 
Seattle Pacific hit .183 for the match, and limited Saint Martin's (7-14, 3-6 GNAC) to .097. That's the fourth time this season it has kept an opponent below .100. Kristyn Ross led the Saints with nine kills.
 
"Just the way we finished the match on Thursday, the way we finished Game 1 tonight, and the way we finished Games 2 and 3 tonight – it was good to see us get that sense of tenacity late in games and late in matches," Johnson said.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
 
Seattle Pacific 3, Saint Martin's 0
 
Game scores – 25-23, 25-19, 25-16.
 
Service aces – StM 1 (Good 1), SPU 5 (Ellie Britt 3).
Kills – StM 29 (Kristyn Ross 9), SPU 39 (Madi Cavell 11).
Assists – StM 27 (Cymbree Decosta 24), SPU 36 (Kendall Langdon 17, Sara Biondi 13).
Digs – StM 49 (Jessica Riddle 19), SPU 50 (Brianna Leenders 18).
Block assists / solo – StM 18 / 1 solo (Good 6 / 0 solo), SPU 18 / 1 solo (Nikki Lowell 7 / 0 solo, Nicole Schwend 3 / 1 solo).
Hitting (kills-errors-attacks) – StM 29-19-103--.097 (Larissa Hamilton 6-2-13--.308), SPU 39-18-115--.183 (Jackie Arnold 9-1-15--.533).
Attendance – 214.
 
Records – Seattle Pacific 9-8, 5-4 GNAC. Saint Martin's 7-14, 3-6 GNAC.
 
Next match – Seattle Pacific at Western Washington, Thursday, Oct. 24, 7:00 p.m.