Box Score

        Box score, play-by-play
 
BILLINGS, Mont. – The wide-open Great Northwest Athletic Conference volleyball is now wide-open again to the Seattle Pacific Falcons.
 
Madi Cavell, Ellie Britt, and Sara Biondi all had double-doubles on Saturday night, and Cavell put down the match-clincher as the Falcons halted a three-match losing streak by beating Montana State Billings in five games.
               
Scores in Alterowitz Gymnasium were 25-20, 20-25, 25-21, 18-25, 15-11.
 
At 10-5 overall and 4-3 in the conference, Seattle Pacific is back in the hunt, as no one is undefeated any longer. Northwest Nazarene, the last team with a perfect GNAC mark, fell in four games at Western Washington on Saturday and is 6-1. Alaska Anchorage, now at 7-1, has taken over first place. WWU has two losses. SPU, Simon Fraser and Billings all have three, and Central Washington has four.
 
"This is huge," Falcons head coach Chris Johnson said of not only getting the victory, but getting it on the road, and against a team that knocked off No. 11-ranked Western last Saturday night in Billings. "The whole conference is going to start beating up on each other.
 
"It's a way better feeling going home 4-3 and knowing were still in the hunt," Johnson added. "We really believe that we're still in it."
 
Seattle Pacific returns to action next Thursday at Northwest Nazarene at 6:00 p.m. PDT. The Falcons conclude the first half of conference play next Saturday night against Central in Ellensburg.

 

Senior outside hitter Cavell (Keizer, Ore.) had 19 kills and 15 assists. That was her sixth double-double of the season and the 20th of her career. She is the GNAC leader and No. 9 in NCAA D2 for total kills.
 
Junior outside hitter Britt (Orange, Calif.) put down 15 kills and had10 digs for her second of the year and seventh of her career. Senior setter Biondi (Sacramento, Calif.) set up a season-high 44 assists and also had 12 digs, giving her six double-doubles for 2014 and seven for her career.
 
"Those three were clicking all night," Johnson said. "They were just on top of it for most of the match."
 
BLOCK PARTY
 

Sophomore middle blocker Maddi Hommes (Lynden, Wash. / Lynden HS) came up with a career-high 10 block assists That beat her previous high of seven, set just last Saturday night in five games against Simon Fraser.
 
It was SPU's first double-digit blocks performance since Oct. 8, 2011, when Angie Prico came up with 13 in a match against Western Washington.
 
With Hommes leading the way, Seattle Pacific scored a season-high 15 points on blocks.
 
Senior libero Brianna Leenders, who moved into SPU's all-time top five for career digs last week, climbed another notch on Saturday. Leenders had 23, giving her 1,384 for her career. That put her into the No. 4 spot ahead of Tiffany Butac, who had 1,379 from 2003-06.
 
BACK AND FORTH IN GAME 5
After splitting the first four games – including a come-from-behind effort in Game 3 after being down 18-14 – the Falcons saw a 6-3 lead in Game 5 melt into a 6-6 tie. But they put two straight on the board for an 8-6 lead at the changeover, then added another point. The advantage grew to 12-7 before MSUB came back to get within two points twice, the last time at 13-11.
 
A block by Biondi and freshman Hannah Lautenbach gave SPU a chance at match point. With Carver serving, Cavell converted with the kill.
 
"It was a very good tough, gritty win for us," Johnson said. "We had some things go really well, we had some real good performance, and also just had some good, clutch plays."
 
SPU had 54 kills on 200 attacks, hitting .140 for the night. Billings stayed in the match in large part by coming up 103 digs and getting 16 kills apiece from Chelsey Walter and Monica Grimsrud.
 

NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
Saturday, October 4, 2014
Alterowitz Gymnasium / Billings, Mont.
 
Seattle Pacific 3, Montana State Billings 2
 
Game scores – 25-20, 20-25, 25-21, 18-25, 15-11.
 
Service aces – SPU 6 (Breanne Wiekamp 3), MSUB 3 (3 players with 1).
Kills – SPU 54 (Madi Cavell 19, Ellie Britt 15), MSUB 64 (Chelsey Walter 16, Monica Grimsrud 16).
Assists – SPU 48 (Sara Biondi 44), MSUB 61 (Kyndall Williams 53).
Digs – SPU 84 (Brianna Leenders 23, Cavell 15, Wiekamp 14, Biondi 12, Britt 10), MSUB 103 (Haley Wells 24).
Block assists / solo – SPU 28 / 1 solo (Maddi Hommes 10 / 0 solo), MSUB 10 / 2 solo (Alaina Gentile 4 / 0 solo, Grimsrud 3 / 1 solo).
Hitting (kills-errors-attacks) – SPU 54-26-200--.140 (Britt 15-5-49--.204), MSUB 64-30-186--.183 (Walter 16-2-28--.500)
Attendance – 501.
 
Records – Seattle Pacific 10-5, 4-3 GNAC. Montana State Billings 9-6, 4-3 GNAC.
 
Next match – Seattle Pacific at Northwest Nazarene, Thursday, Oct. 9, 6:00 p.m. PDT.