SEATTLE – If at first you don't succeed, well, just keep trying. Even if it takes three times, four times …
 
…maybe even seven times.
 
It took that many tries at match point for the Seattle Pacific Falcons on Saturday afternoon, but the seventh time was the one that finally got it done.
 
Hannah Hair had a double-double of 12 kills and 10 blocks, Allison Wilks had 13 kills on .706 hitting, and SPU got the clinching point on a kill by freshman outside hitter Eva LaRochelle to secure a 3-1 volleyball victory against Saint Martin's.
 
Scores of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference contest in Brougham Pavilion were 25-13, 25-19, 32-34, 25-23.
 
 

Senior setter Emily Tulino had a monster afternoon for the Falcons (4-13, 4-5 GNAC). She posted a double career high of 49 assists and six blocks. It is the third time in the past four matches that Tulino has set a career high for assists: 41 at Western Washington last week, 45 on Thursday against Western Oregon, and now 49. And, it's her second consecutive career blocking high. She had four in the WOU match. She also had 14 digs on Saturday.
 
Fifth-year outside hitter Sydney Perry came up with another double-digit kills performance, this time with 12.
 
The Falcons now have won three of their last four, rising from near the bottom of the standings to the middle of the pack with the GNAC schedule now at exactly its halfway point. The wins against Western Oregon and Saint Martin's accounted for their first 2-0 weak of the season.
 
 

"We've just really been working hard in the gym on how to side-out efficiently and get good passes to the net for Emily, and on how our hitters can be more effective on using off-speed or big swings," Wilks said. "We've just been drilling on how to be effective on offense, and I think that's starting to show in how we've been playing."
 
Added head coach Jason Rhine, "It's fun for the team and hopefully it helps them see all of the progress they've been making and working on and seeing some things come together. It takes a lot of individual performances, but it also is the work the team has been doing in practice and responding to what they're learning in different matches."
 
After racing to a 12-2 lead and cruising through Set 1, then coming through with an 8-2 scoring run to take Set 2, SPU found itself in catch-up mode for much of Set 3. Down 19-15, the Falcons climbed back into a 20-20 tie, only to see the Saints (5-12, 3-6 GNAC) go up 23-21.
 
A 3-0 flurry on a kill by Hair, a tip by Wilks, and a kill by Perry set up the first match point at 24-23. A double-hit call wiped out that one.
 
The Saints then had set point opportunities at 25-24 and 27-26. In between, Seattle Pacific had another match point at 26-25 that hard-hitting outside Emily Garten saved with a crosscourt kill.
 
Chances kept coming: 28-27, 29-28, 30-29, 31-30. All four times, Saint Martin's stayed alive with a kill, then gained another set point at 32-31, that Hair and Tulino saved with a combined block. A service error and an SPU attack error put the final two points on the Saints' side of the scoreboard and forced a fourth set.
 
The Falcons quickly found themselves in a 6-1 hole, but climbed back to go up 10-9, 11-10 and 12-11. From there, Saint Martin's went back in front, twice leading by as many as three and led all the way to 23-21, just two points away from forcing a deciding fifth set.
 
A quick kill by Hair made it 23-22, then Smith went crosscourt to tie it at 23-23. That point was challenged by the Saints, as they thought Smith's attack went out. But a video review confirmed the call, leaving it tied at 23-23.
 
Hair and LaRochelle teamed up on a block to give Seattle Pacific match point – its seventh of the day – and LaRochelle converted with a kill that found an opening in the middle of the floor on the Saint Martin's side.
 
 

"It's very tough to play after you've been playing on edge for so long. To restart a set is always a mental challenge for both teams, especially if you're the one who lost that set, and it can be hard to quickly engage in the next set," Rhine said of the transition from Set 3 to Set 4. "We did a good job of that. There were a couple points early on, but I thought we were still playing hard and playing well. We worked our way back into it and kept going until we could pull ahead."
 
"It was just a kill mentality," Lopez added. "We were just like, 'We're putting this ball away, no matter what – we've got to win.' Everyone was playing their best ball."
 
BY THE NUMBERS
--That 66-point third set – which had 21 ties and 10 lead changes – was Seattle Pacific's longest of the season and the seventh one to go beyond 25 points. The previous long was a 58-point first set last Saturday at Simon Fraser, which the Red Leafs won, 30-28.
-- Emily Tulino now has five straight double-doubles, with seven overall this season and 31 for her career.
-- Allison Wilks' .706 hitting mark was 13 kills and just one error on 17 attacks. For most players, .706 would be a career high with room to spare. But the fifth-year middle blocker also has had two matches of .714 (one as a sophomore, one as a junior), a .750 last year, and her career-high of .857 (6-0-7) late in her junior season of 2022.
-- Eva LaRochelle came up with a career-high 18 digs, beating her previous best of 14 in the GNAC opener at Montana State Billings on Sept. 21.
 

-- Sophomore libero Christina Lopez had 16 digs, leaving her just four away from 500 for her career.
-- The Falcons reached double-digit service aces for the first time this season, logging 10. In addition to Tulino's five (her career high is six), Lopez had two, and Wilks, LaRochelle, and Zoe Shuckhart delivered one apiece.
-- Speaking of aces, the Saints had just four, and SPU responded well to the hard serving of Emily Garten. She leads the GNAC with 42 aces, including five at Billings on Thursday. She had 15 serves on Saturday and put 10 of them into play. The Falcons dug up all 10 and ultimately got the point on six of those 10.
 
UP NEXT
Seattle Pacific begins the second half of GNAC play at home, hosting Central Washington on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. and Northwest Nazarene next Saturday at 2:00 p.m.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
 
Seattle Pacific 3, Saint Martin's 1
 
Set scores – 25-13, 25-19, 32-34, 25-23.
 
Service aces – STM 4 (Hansen 2, Soha 2), SPU 10 (Tulino 5).
Kills – STM 53 (Soha 12), SPU 57 (Wilks 13, Hair 12, Perry 12).
Assists – STM 51 (Lam 26), SPU 57 (Tulino 49).
Digs – STM 61 (Halstead 13), SPU 70 (LaRochelle 18, Lopez 16, Tulino 14, Cunningham 10).
Block assists / solo – STM 12 / 2 solo (Crimmin and Gallegos 3 / 0 solo, Soha 2 / 1 solo), SPU 24 / 2 solo (Hair 8 / 2 solo).
Hitting (kills-errors-attacks) – STM 53-30-156—147 (Soha 12-90-20—600), SPU 57-24-160—206 (Wilks 13-1-17—706).
Attendance – 134.
 
 
Records
Seattle Pacific 4-13, 4-5 GNAC.
Saint Martin's 5-12, 3-6 GNAC.
 
 
Next match
Central Washington at Seattle Pacific
Thursday, Oct. 24     7:00 p.m.
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.


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