Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
        Box scores and official statistics were not available as of Saturday evening.

KIRKLAND, Wash. – It had been so long since their last official volleyball match –15 months, 66 weeks, 461 days – but who's counting? – one might have thought the Seattle Pacific Falcons would want to stay on the court as long as possible when they finally got a chance to play on Saturday afternoon.
 
Nothing doing.
 
When they opened this unique season with a doubleheader at Northwest University in Kirkland, the Falcons wanted to get it done and get it won …
 
… as quickly as they could.
 
They did.
 
Senior Maddie Batiste had 19 kills in the two matches combined, redshirt freshman Maddie Pruden came through with 14 kills and nine block assists in her first college contest, and freshman Hannah Hair, a high school All-American during her senior year at Walla Walla, made an impactful debut with 17 kills, 18 block assists and two solo blocks as SPU swept the Eagles twice inside Kristi Brodin Pavilion.
 
Scores of the first match were 25-23, 25-22, 25-21. In the second one about an hour later, it was 25-23, 29-27, 25-16 for Seattle Pacific.
 
 

"It was fun to play in a live scenario, and Northwest is always fun competition," said head coach Abbie Wright, whose squad scrimmaged five games against the Eagles on Tuesday night before Saturday's official opener. "It was a good day all around, close games, and seeing how our team worked through it with different lineups and different people in different spots.
 
"Just seeing collectively how we came together as a unit was really fun."
 
In a preseason conversation, Wright said the Falcons as a team decided to make defense a focus for their 22-match spring schedule.

That was readily apparent on Saturday. They had 42 block assists (for 21 points) and three solo blocks.
 
It added up to 24 of SPU's total points for the day coming via the block. (All stats are unofficial; final official stats are not expected until later this weekend.)
 
"We're a really physical team this year, and we want to take advantage of that by emphasizing defense – not only people digging, like our liberos, but we want our block to be really solid," said Batiste, who had three block assists to go along with her 19 kills. "We want that to be our trademark. … We're really pursuing that as a goal, and it's starting to pay off."
 




MATCH 1: SPU 3, Northwest 0
The Falcons were in front for most of all three games, but Northwest always was lurking within striking distance.
 
SPU used a 9-1 run to go from 9-7 down to 16-10 up in the opener, then saw the Eagle scramble back to tie it at 20-20, and again at 22-22. Junior outside hitter Erin Gould got the clincher on a kill.
 

The second game also was tied at 20-20 when redshirt freshman Lindsay Rosenthal slammed a kill, freshman Zoe Shuckhart delivered a service ace, then Gould and freshman Hannah Hair teamed up on a block for 23-20. Northwest got within 23-22, but no closer.
 
The Eagles put together a 5-1 scoring surge late in the third game to turn a 17-15 deficit into a 20-18 lead. But Seattle Pacific then responded with a six straight points, as Hair had a hand in the first four of those: a solo block, a kill, then back-to-back combination blocks with Gould, for a 22-20 Falcons advantage. Batiste then nailed a kill for 23-20, and Gould had a kill that ricocheted off a Northwest blocker for 24-20.
 
The Eagles saved one match point, but Batiste secured it on the second try with a kill.
 
MATCH 2: SPU 3, Northwest 0
The Falcons had a pair of six-point scoring runs in the opening game. The first one got them out of a 13-7 hole and back into a 13-13 tie. The second one snapped a 16-16 deadlock. Northwest got within a point on three occasions after that, but SPU had an answer each time.
 
Neither team was able to forge ahead by more than two points in the second game, which featured 21 ties and 16 lead changes. Northwest had game points at 24-23 and 27-26; Seattle Pacific had opportunities at 25-24 and 26-25. Finally at 27-27, Batiste had an attack that was tipped out by Northwest for 28-27, and an Eagles attack error on the next rally clinched it for the Falcons.
 
SPU yielded the first point of Game 3, then strung together five in a row and was in command the rest of the way. Subsequent scoring runs of 5-1 and 6-0 made it 17-5.
 
"We talked about every scenario and learning through it," Wright said. "It is tight? Is it spread out a little? Are coming from behind or are you ahead? We saw all those scenarios today. We were mindful of them, we talked through them, and we persevered in every situation."
 
BY THE NUMBERS
-- Junior outside hitter Erin Gould had an unofficial total of 11 kills and seven block assists in the two matches combined.
-- Another redshirt freshman, Lindsay Rosenthal, made her debut, delivering 11 kills and four service aces. Of those aces, three came consecutively midway through Game 3 of the second match, extending the lead to 15-5.
 
UP NEXT
The Falcons play a doubleheader at Saint Martin's this coming Tuesday, March 2. The first match starts at 3:00 p.m.; the second at approximately 5:30 p.m.