Box score, play-by-play (HTML)

PORTLAND, Ore. – Yup … she finished how she started.
 
Hannah Lautenbach had 19 kills in her final college match – including the last three points of the night for Seattle Pacific – as the Falcons closed the volleyball season with a sweep of Concordia-Portland on Saturday night.
 
Scores on LCEF Court were 26-24, 26-24, 25-21.
 
The Falcons put their first winning record into the book since 2013, finishing at 15-13 overall and 10-10 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play.
 




"We've worked hard, and the little things that we keep seeing translating into the games at the end of the year, things that we worked on, it's probably no accident that we're playing our best volleyball now," said coach Abbie Wright, who now has completed her first season at the helm.
 
Senior middle blocker / opposite Lautenbach, playing in her hometown, hit .341, with just five errors on 41 attacks.
 
Lautenbach's first match as a Falcon came four years ago in this same gym. It was an exhibition against Concordia that SPU won in five games. She had kills on the final two points.
 
On Saturday, it was kills on the final three: a tip off the Concordia block to make it 23-20, a dunk on a short Cavaliers service return to make it 24-20, and then, at 24-21, a crosscourt kill that landed just inside the far corner to clinch the match.
 
After trailing for most of Game 1 before coming back to win, and then getting the final three points to come from 24-23 down in Game 2, Seattle Pacific scored the first three points of Game 3, never trailed, and was never tied. The closest Concordia came was one on several occasions, the last time at 21-20.
 
"It's just resilience. This team, they've been good at taking risks," Wright said. "We've been teaching them that, and they've been good at buying into that. At big moments, you have to takes risks to win those games. You've got to compete and play to win – you can't play timid. Tonight was a perfect example of that."
 
BY THE NUMBERS
-- Junior middle blocker Shaun Crespi had a solid overall stats line of seven kills, .286 hitting, and eight block assists.
-- Junior setter Symone Tran racked up her 18th double-double of the year, this one with 41 assists and 12 digs. She has 47 for her career.
-- The 41 assists give Tran a career total of 3,093, and moved into the No. 5 all-time spot on SPU's career assist list past Heather Peterson (3,073).
-- The Falcons finished with their second-best hitting night of the season at .275, with 46 kills and just 16 errors on 111 attacks.
-- Not only was this Seattle Pacific's first win at Concordia since the Portland school joined the GNAC in 2013, it was the first time it had even won a set in the Cavaliers' gymnasium outside of the exhibition victory in 2014.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
Saturday, Nov. 18, 2017
LCEF Court / Portland, Ore.
 
Seattle Pacific 3, Concordia-Portland 0
 
Game scores – 26-24, 26-24, 25-21.
 
Service aces – SPU 2 (2 players with 1), CU 3 (Michele Brown 2).
Kills – SPU 46 (Hannah Lautenbach 19), CU 38 (Lindsey Dorsey 14).
Assists – SPU 44 (Symone Tran 41), CU 36 (Brown 33).
Digs – SPU 44 (Tran 12, Amanda Ganete 11), CU 45 (Anna Dolis 11).
Block assists / solo – SPU 18 / 0 solo (Shaun Crespi 8 / 0 solo), CU 18/ 0 solo (Colby Barnette 7 / 0 solo).
Hitting (kills-errors-attacks) – SPU 46-16-111--.270 (Lautenbach 19-5-41--.341), CU 38-25-119--.109 (Barnette 10-2-21--.381)
Attendance – 411.
 
Final records – Seattle Pacific 15-13, 10-10 GNAC.   Concordia-Portland 13-14, 8-12 GNAC.
 
 
Next match
Season complete.