Box Score
       Box score, play-by-play
 
BILLINGS, Mont. – The middle blockers were smack in the middle of a big Seattle Pacific volleyball comeback on Saturday night.
 
Nikki Lowell hammered 15 kills, including the match clincher, and Jackie Arnold had a career-high 12 kills on as SPU  stormed back from two games down to beat Montana State Billings in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference match.
 
Scores in Alterowitz Gymnasium were 23-25, 21-25, 25-23, 25-21, 15-12.
 
SPU (12-8, 8-4 GNAC) won its fifth in a row. The Falcons have taken four out of the five matches this season that have gone the five-game limit. This was the second time they came back from a two-game deficit. The first was on Sept. 7 at national powerhouse Cal State San Bernardino.
 
Senior  middle blocker Lowell (Claremont, Calif.) hit .406 for the night with just two errors on 32 attacks. She also had seven total blocks, moving into the No. 5 spot on the all-time SPU career list and the No. 3 spot on the GNAC career list. She now has 386.
 
Sophomore middle blocker Arnold (Anaheim, Calif.), who hit .417 with only two errors on 24 swings, beat her previous career high for kills by one. She had 11 last season against Central Washington.
 
"Both of our middles were fantastic," Seattle Pacific head coach Chris Johnson said. "We tried to put a bigger emphasis on them in the last three games because they started out so well. And we started blocking a lot better in those last three games. We had 11 blocks just between Games 3 and 4."
 
The Falcons are back home this coming week, hosting Northwest Nazarene on Thursday and Central Washington on Saturday in Brougham Pavilion, both with a 7:00 p.m. first serve.
 
Junior outside hitter Madi Cavell (Keizer, Ore.) had 12 kills and 16 digs on Saturday for her third consecutive double-double and fourth in the past five matches. She has nine for the season and 12 for her career.
 
Junior libero Brianna Leenders (Gresham, Ore.) had 15 digs to move past 1,000 for her career. She now has 1,013. Junior setter Sara Biondi (Sacramento,Calif.) had 23 assists, a career-high six kills, and six block assists, the latter tying her career high. Junior setter Kendall Langdon (Irvine, Calif.) also had 23 assists.
 
The match appeared to be slipping away from SPU, down two games and 18-12 in Game 3. But then came six straight points – that last five of those with Langdon serving -- that started a 13-5 run to close out the game.
 
"It's the same stuff we've been telling them: Just play steady and take advantage of what's working," Johnson said. "We just had to keep doing what we were doing and just keep pressing them."
 
Seattle Pacific led for most of Game 4. Then in the deciding fifth game, the Falcons scored the first three points before Billings (3-17, 1-11 GNAC) ran off four in a row. The game was tied seven times after that, the last time at 11-11.
 
SPU then put up three straight, the last of which was an ace by sophomore libero Breanne Wiekamp (Laguna Niguel, Calif.) to set up match point at 14-11. The Yellowjackets fought off one to get within 14-12. But on the next point, Biondi set up Lowell for a quick kill, and Lowell put it away.
 
"This is a tough place to play because there's a little bit of altitude," Johnson said. "But we're just continuing to build confidence in ourselves and in what we're doing. And our tenacity – we were down two games, and said, 'We can come back. We believe we're a better team than they are, so let's go out and prove it.'"
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Alterowitz Gymnasium / Billings, Mont.
 
Seattle Pacific 3, Montana State Billings 2
 
Game scores – 23-25, 21-25, 25-23, 25-21, 15-12.
 
Service aces – SPU 6 (Lexi Biondi 2, Kendall Langdon 2), MSUB 2 (2 players with 1).
Kills – SPU 57 (Nikki Lowell 15, Madi Cavell 12, Jackie Arnold 12), MSUB 66 (Stormy Siemion 16, Monica Grimsrud 15).
Assists – SPU 54 (Sara Biondi 23, Kendall Langdon 23), MSUB 65 (Kyndal Williams 63).
Digs – SPU 50 (Cavell 16, Brianna Leenders 15), MSUB 63 (Siemion 14).
Block assists / solo – SPU 22 / 5 solo (Lowell 6 / 1 solo, S. Biondi 6 / 0 solo), MSUB 8 / 6 solo (Julia Anderson 3 / 2 solo).
Hitting (kills-errors-attacks) – SPU 57-23-157--.217 (Arnold 12-2-24--.417, Lowell 15-2-32--.406), MSUB 66-35-161--.187 (Anderson 9-2-21--.636).
Attendance – 107.
 
Records – Seattle Pacific 12-8, 8-4 GNAC. Montana State Billings 3-17, 1-11 GNAC.
 
Next match – Northwest Nazarene at Seattle Pacific, Thursday, Nov. 7, Brougham Pavilion, 7:00 p.m.