SEATTLE – Some nights, the volleyball just isn't going to land inbounds often enough.
 
Thursday was one of those nights for the Seattle Pacific Falcons.
 
Erin Smith had nine kills, and Sarah Brachvogel added seven, but SPU suffered through its lowest hitting night of the season and dropped a 3-0 decision to Western Washington.
 
Scores of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference contest in Brougham Pavilion were 25-22, 25-20, 25-22.
 
That snapped an 11-match winning streak for the  No. 21-ranked Falcons (12-3, 6-1 GNAC) – the first time since 2010 (16 in a row) that they had forged a double-digit string of victories.
 
Seattle Pacific has enjoyed some outstanding hitting nights this fall with six matches of .250 or higher, including two in the .300s and one in the .400s.
 
But the Falcons finished at just .075 on Thursday with 32 kills and 23 errors on 120 attacks. The Vikings (5-9, 5-1 GNAC), who started out 0-9 but now have won five straight, did their part by digging up 55 of those attacks and blocking seven others.
 
 

"Credit to Western's defense – they came in with a good game plan," head coach Jason Rhine said. "I thought they put a lot of pressure on us to make us take two or three swings per rally. Sometimes, it just felt like that second or third swing was either just a couple inches out or was not quite aggressive enough.
 
"Each rally was a little different," Rhine added. "But at the end of the day, they were able to play tough defense, and we weren't able to come up with kills on second or third attempts."
 
Hannah Hair had an error-free night of six kills on 11 attacks for a .545 percentage. But she was one of just three Falcons with a positive percentage (Smith and Brachvogel also did.) Four others were at .000.
 
The opening set was the tightest of the night, with six ties and five lead changes. Seattle Pacific had closed within one at 20-19, then Western stretched it back out to three at 22-19. The Vikings eventually had quadruple set point at 24-20. The Falcons fought off two of those before WWU closed it out.
 
Western Washington raced to an 11-2 lead in Set 2, and the closest it ever got was four, the last time at 22-18.
 
SPU led through most of the third set, three times by as many as four points. The lead was still three at 20-17, but three straight attack errors allowed the Vikings to pull into a 20-20 tie.

The Falcons had one more lead at 21-20. Western put the next three on the board for a 23-21 edge. Allison Wilks got a kill off a WWU blocker to make it 23-22. Then a tip and a kill by Delaney Speer closed out the match.
 
"It was definitely a difficult loss, especially at home," Brachvogel said. "They were definitely a hard opponent, and we knew that coming in. We'll learn from our mistakes and push forward. I think we just need the night to kind of mourn our loss, and tomorrow, it's back to work, right back at it and push forward."
 
BY THE NUMBERS
-- Western Washington wound up hitting .208 (37 kills-15 errors-106 attacks).
--The Falcons, who are the top blocking team in NCAA Division II, got just three points on the block. Western Washington had seven.
-- Hannah Hair's error-free hitting night was her fourth of the season. It was her first time of the year with a percentage in the .500s. She also has three in the .400s, and a career-high .833 on Sept. 2 against Cal State San Marcos that tied the school single-match record.
-- Freshman libero Christina Lopez tied her career high with 17 digs, matching what she had in last Saturday's 3-1 victory at Alaska Anchorage.
-- Sarah Brachvogel's seven kills included her career 400th (now with 406), and her seven digs included her career 200th (now 206).
 
UP NEXT
SPU continues its three-match homestand on Saturday when Simon Fraser visits at 2:00 p.m. The Red Leafs pulled out a closer-than-it-looked 3-0 sweep at Montana State Billings on Thursday, 30-28, 25-14, 29-27.
 

 NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
 
Western Washington 3, Seattle Pacific 0
 
Game scores – 25-22, 25-20, 25-22.
 
Service aces – WWU 5 (Kepley 2), SPU 7 (Cunningham 3).
Kills – WWU 37 (Vossenkuhl 11), SPU 32 (Smith 3).
Assists – WWU 34 (Holland 31), SPU 30 (Chambers 13, Tulino 13).
Digs – WWU 55 (Oestreich 15), SPU 48 (Lopez 17).
Block assists / solo – WWU 10 / 2 solo (Speer 4 / 0 solo, Vossenkuhl 2 / 2 solo), SPU 6 / 0 solo (Wilks 3 / 0 solo).
Hitting (kills-errors-attacks) – WWU 37-15-106—208 (Vossenuhl 11-1-15—667), SPU 32-23-120—075 (Hair 6-0-11—545).
Attendance – 244.
 
 
Records
Seattle Pacific 12-3, 6-1 GNAC.  Western Washington 5-9, 5-1 GNAC.
 
Next match
Simon Fraser at Seattle Pacific
Saturday, Oct. 7     2:00 p.m.
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.