NAMPA, Idaho – Now, all they can do is wait.
 
Seeking to keep their NCAA Tournament hopes alive on the final weekend of the regular season, the Seattle Pacific Falcons slammed a season-high 67 kills, but fell short in their Great Northwest Athletic Conference finale on Saturday afternoon, dropping a 3-2 decision at Northwest Nazarene.
 
Scores in the Johnson Sports Center were 23-25, 25-21, 31-29, 18-25, 15-9.
 
SPU (15-10, 11-7 GNAC) came into the week on the bubble for making the NCAAs, sitting at No. 9 in the latest West Region rankings. The top eight in the final rankings make the tournament.
 
Those final rankings will be determined after the weekend when the GNAC and Pacific West Conference have concluded their regular-season schedules and the California Collegiate Athletic Association has wrapped up its tournament.
 
The Falcons did give themselves a boost on Thursday with a 3-0 sweep at Central Washington, which is ranked No. 4 in the West, before falling to the Nighthawks (7-19, 4-14 GNAC) on Saturday.
 
 

"We didn't really put much together, and that's credit to NNU – I thought they dug a lot of balls up and made a lot of very good plays," Falcons head coach Abbie Wright said. "It kind of frustrated us early on that we couldn't put a ball away. That kind of messes with you a little bit. You feel like you're trying to do everything, and nothing is working. It wasn't really going our way."
 
The third set was key. Seattle Pacific rallied from a 14-8 deficit to climb back into it, and ultimately had four tries at set point: 26-25, 27-26, 28-27, and 29-28. NNU staved off all of them, scoring the final three points to take the set.
 
SPU closed the Set 4 on an 11-4 run, snapping a 14-14 tie and forcing the match into a decisive fifth.
 
The Falcons bolted to a quick 4-2 lead, and were still up 5-4 when the Nighthawks put four straight points on the board for an 8-5 advantage. SPU got one back on a kill by sophomore opposite Maddie Pruden, getting within 8-6.
 
Northwest Nazarene than ran off six in a row for a 14-6 lead, thus giving itself eight tries at match point. Seattle Pacific saved the first three of those on a kill by Sarah Brachvogel, a bad set by the Nighthawks, and a service ace by Lindsey Lambert, making it 14-9. But a kill by Anna Gable on the next point ended it.
 
"It was tough to make certain things work." Wright said. "But overall, we'll press on and learn from it
 
"It was kind of a bummer – we had some moments that were really good, and some moments that were harder," she added.
 
 

Pruden finished with a career-high 14 kills, beating her previous mark of 13, which she had reached twice. Senior outside hitter Maddie Batiste added 13, and sophomore outside / middle blocker Allison Wilks tied her career high with 10. Wilks did that with an error-free performance, swinging 22 times for a final percentage of .455. She also had four of SPU's season-high 14 aces.
 
BY THE NUMBERS
-- SPU had 12 more kills than Northwest Nazarene, 67-55. But the Falcons also had 15 more attack errors, and finished the day hitting just .161 (67-36-192). The Nighthawks finished at .195 (55-21-174).
-- The 60-point third set was Seattle Pacific's longest of the season. It went 58 points in the third at home against Saint Martin's on Sept. 30, closing out the sweep with a 30-28 win.
-- Freshman setter Emily Tulino tied her career high with 38 assists and set a career high for digs with 19. That was her third double-double of the year.
-- Junior setter Lindsey Lambert double-doubled with 19 assists and 18 digs. She had double-doubles in three of the final four matches, giving her five for the season and 17 for her career.
-- Sophomore middle blocker Hannah Hair, who started the day atop the GNAC hitting list, hit .238 for the day (9 kills-4 errors-21 attacks), giving her a final mark of .333 (217-62-466). She came in at .337. Western Washington's Olivia Fairchild, who started the day at 331, hit .300 (8-2-20) in the Vikings' four-set victory against Simon Fraser and wound up the regular season at .330 (236-5y-542). The only other one within range of those two is Alaska Anchorage's Vera Pluharova (.325).


NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
Saturday, Nov. 20, 2021
Johnson Sports Center / Nampa, Idaho
 
Northwest Nazarene 3, Seattle Pacific 2
 
Game scores – 23-25, 25-21, 31-29, 18-25, 15-9.

Service aces – SPU 14 (Wilks 4), NNU 8 (MacKinney 4).
Kills – SPU 67 (Pruden 14, Batiste 13, Wilks 10), NNU 55 (Gable 12).
Assists – SPU 65 (Tulino 38, Lambert 19), NNU 45 (Lee 41).
Digs – SPU 80 (Tulino 19, Lambert 18, Rosenthal 17), NNU 77 (Lee 17)
Block assists / solo – SPU 24 / 0 solo (Hair 9 / 0 solo), NNU 26 / 0 solo (Markland 8 / 0 solo).
Hitting (kills-errors-attacks) – SPU 67-36-192—161 (Wilks 10-0-22—455), NNU 55-21-174—195 (Gablke 12-3-22—409).
Attendance – 294.
 
Records
Seattle Pacific 15-10, 11-7 GNAC.
Northwest Nazarene 7-19, 4-14 GNAC.
 
Next match
Regular season complete. Postseason to be determined.