SEATTLE – Senior Night came a little early for
Maddie Batiste and
Erin Gould.
Batiste had a double-double and served up the last four points of a five-point run late in the fourth set. Gould had eight kills, 19 digs, and was on the serve for the last four points of a 5-0 run earlier in that same set as Seattle Pacific took down Simon Fraser in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference volleyball match on Thursday night, 3-1.
Scores in Brougham Pavilion were 25-23, 25-16, 21-25, 25-20.
Batiste
Batiste finished with 12 kills and 11 digs for the Falcons (14-8, 10-5 GNAC), who kept their homecourt record perfect at 11-0. She hit a solid .256 for the night with just two errors on 39 attacks.
Gould
Gould hit even higher at .400 (8 kills-2 errors-15 attacks). The 19 digs was her second-highest total of the season, exceeded only by the career-high 21 she recorded at home against Northwest Nazarene on Sept. 16.
Officially, Senior Night for the two Falcon outside hitters will be Saturday when Western Washington comes to Brougham for a 7:00 p.m. contest.
Sophomore middle blocker
Hannah Hair and sophomore opposite
Sydney Perry each added 11 kills on Thursday. Perry's final one came on match point.
"It's exciting to see. We dropped the third set, and the fourth started a little rocky, but I was most proud of our team for picking it up and turning it around," head coach
Abbie Wright said. "I think we're growing in that and learning how, when things are off kilter, we have to keep going and keep finding a way. I think we're learning how to do that a little more."
SLOW START … AND THEN, BOOM!
Simon Fraser (17-5, 11-5 GNAC), trying to stay within striking range of Western Washington for the conference crown (the Vikings clinched it earlier in the evening with a 3-0 sweep at Montana State Billings), jumped to a 19-12 lead in the opening set.
It was still a 21-16 margin when the Falcons started to climb back into it. A 5-0 scoring run, with Batiste serving up the last four of those points, tied the score at 21-21. Simon twice went back on top, 22-21 and 23-22.
But two attack errors gave Seattle Pacific a 24-23 lead, then Gould clinched it with a hard kill that a defender got a hand under, but dug wide. That capped a set-ending surge of 13-4 for the Falcons.
SPU scored the first three points of Set 2 and never trailed, using a run of five straight points to stretch an 11-9 lead to 16-9.
The Falcons appeared ready to pull away in the third set, building a 16-11 advantage. But that's when Simon Fraser rang up nine points in a row to take a 20-16 lead and then split the last 10 to take the set and keep the match going.
The Canadian visitors got an early jump in Set 4, going up by a 6-3 margin. They were still ahead 9-7 when Seattle Pacific ran off four in a row: a Simon Fraser attack error, a service ace by
Allison Wilks, a quick kill by Hair, and a kill by
Sarah Brachvogel to make it 11-9.
SPU stayed ahead the rest of the way. The lead grew to as many as six points at 18-12. Simon twice got as close as two, the last time at 19-17. A Batiste kill started the decisive 5-0 run. With Batiste then serving, Perry had a crosscourt kill, Simon Fraser killed one into the net, Gould scored on a tip, and Batiste delivered a service ace for a lead of seven match points at 24-17.
Simon Fraser saved the first three of those, closing within 24-20. Then Perry swung at one that went off the two blockers at the net and flew out to finish it for the Falcons.
Wright
"When things got awkward, we went back to our strengths and found the right hitters at the right time," Wright said. "We used different subs coming in and changed the rhythm of it. We were using our deep bench, and having people come in and ready to go was huge for us"
BY THE NUMBERS
-- The Falcons hit .172 for the match. Simon Fraser was at .130.
--
Maddie Batiste's double-double was her fourth of the season and 23rd of her career.
--Junior setter
Lindsey Lambert also double-doubled on Thursday with 21 assists and 13 digs. That was her third of the season and 15th of her career. Lambert is now four digs away from 500 for her career.
-- Along with her 12 kills, Batiste had three aces and two block assists for 16 points. That puts her at 991.0 for her career, giving her a chance to record No. 1,000 on Saturday against Western Washington.
NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
Seattle Pacific 3, Simon Fraser 1
Game scores – 25-23, 25-16, 21-25, 25-20.
Service aces – Simon 4 (4 players with 1), SPU 9 (Batiste 3).
Kills – Simon 45 (Dexter 15), SPU 56 (Batiste 12, Hair 11, Perry 11).
Assists – Simon 42 (Tays 34), SPU 51 (Tulino 21, Lambert 21).
Digs – Simon 76 (Te 23), SPU 75 (Gould 19, Rosenthal 17, Lambert 13, Batiste 11).
Block assists / solo – Simon 16 / 2 solo (Hartmann 5 / 2 solo), SPU 18 / 1 solo (Wilks 6 / 0 solo).
Hitting (kills-errors-attacks) – Simon 45-25-154—130 (Tays 5-0-12—417), SPU 56-26-174—172 (Gould 8-2-15—400).
Attendance – 125.
Records – Seattle Pacific 14-8, 10-5 GNAC. Simon Fraser 17-6, 11-5 GNAC.
Next match
Western Washington at Seattle Pacific
Saturday, 7:00 p.m.
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
