MONMOUTH, Ore. – Eva LaRochelle is in her first year of college volleyball. Erin Smith is in her fifth.
 
The two of them made for a particularly potent combination for the Seattle Pacific Falcons on Saturday.
 
 

Freshman outside hitter LaRochelle slammed a career-high 15 kills, and fifth-year opposite Smith put 14 onto the floor and also came up with seven blocks as SPU defeated Western Oregon, 3-1.
 
Scores of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference contest in the New P.E. Building were 25-23, 17-25, 25-22, 25-18.
 
The win assured the Falcons (9-16, 9-8 GNAC) of at least a .500 record in conference play. They'll have a chance to secure a winning mark in next Saturday's season finale at home against Montana State Billings.
 
 

"We did a great job of just playing consistently on the other team's Senior Night when they were emotional and playing with a lot of energy at times," Falcons coach Jason Rhine said. "I thought we did a great job of being a mature, experienced team, working hard and finishing well."
 
Fifth-year middle blocker Allison Wilks had another strong performance up front with 10 kills and six blocks. Hannah Hair added seven kills and four blocks.
 
LaRchelle's previous career high for kills was 12 on Nov. 2 at Alaska Fairbanks. Her 15 on Saturday came on .387 hitting, well above her previous best of .200. It was her sixth match this season in double digits.
 
 

Smith's seven blocks was a season high. She had six in two previous matches. Her last two on Saturday came late in the fourth set as SPU created some breathing room against a scrappy Wolves team that kept climbing back into the match all afternoon. Both of them were combo efforts with Wilks, the first one making it 21-15, the second making it 23-16.
 
"One thing we talked about partway through the match was they were really clamping down on our middles, trying to get up with them and stop them," Rhine said. "That opened up some different things for Eva and Erin, and they were able to get a lot of kills, along with Sydney Perry. And they tend to set fast to their outsides, We talked about that in preparation that Erin was going to get some balls hit fast into her area, and she did a great job of responding to that and being up early on the block."
 
Seattle Pacific scored the first four points of the match and led for the entirety of the opening set, once by as many as nine at 22-13. A 5-0 Western Oregon run cut that to 22-18, but the Falcons pushed it back to 24-18. The Wolves then saved five consecutive set-point tries by the Falcons, getting within 24-23 before a crosscourt tip by LaRochelle secured the set.
 
Western Oregon was in front for nearly all of Set 2. SPU climbed back into ties at 11, 12, and 13. The Wolves took charge with a 5-0 burst, part of a 12-4 set-ending run to level it at 1-1.
 
Tied at 18-18 in the third, Seattle Pacific put six of the next seven points on the board with two kills by Wilks, one each by Perry and Smith, a Christina Lopez service ace, and a WOU service error, thereby building a 24-19 lead. Once again, Western Oregon bounced back, closing within 24-22 before Smith ended with off a Wolves blocker.
 
A 5-0 surge in the fourth set took the Falcons from 7-5 behind to 10-7 in front. They built the lead to as many as seven at 18-11 and it never dropped below five after that.
 
"That's part of them – they would go on some scoring runs because they're tough servers," Rhine said of the Wolves. "We'd build a lead and they would come back, or they would get ahead and we'd have to come back. I thought we did a good job of playing our game and doing some things similarly, serving aggressively and being able to go on some runs."
 
BY THE NUMBERS
--The Falcons hit .280 for the day (56 kills-16 errors-143 attacks), and three strong sets: .273 in the first, ,471 in the third (with 19 kills on 34 swings) and an error-free .387 in the fourth (12 kills on 31 swings).
-- After just six blocks in Thursday night's 3-0 sweep at Saint Martin's, SPU had 20 on Saturday.
- Western Oregon is the top serving team in the GNAC and delivered another 12 aces. The Falcons countered with seven, three each by Allison Wilks and Christina Lopez.
 

-- Senior setter Emily Tulino recorded her 13th double-double of the season and 37th of her career, racking up 39 assists and 10 digs.
-- Wilks came up three digs, including her career 300th. She now has 301.
-- Senior outside hitter Madison Hornback had a dominant day for Western Oregon with a double-double of 18 kills on .318 hitting and 12 digs.
-- The Falcons went 4-6 in true road contests, 4-13 overall away from Seattle.
 
UP NEXT
SPU winds up the season next Saturday at home against Montana State Billings. The first serve will be at approximately 2:10 p.m. following the Senior Day ceremony honoring the eight Falcons who are concluding their college career.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024
New P.E. Building / Monmouth, Ore.
 
Seattle Pacific 3, Western Oregon 1
 
Set scores – 25-23, 17-25, 25-22, 25-18.
 
Service aces – SPU 7 (Wilks 3, Lopez 3), WOU 12 (Darby 4).
Kills – SPU 56 (LaRochelle 15, Smith 14, Wilks 10), WOU 47 (Hornback 18).
Assists – SPU 47 (Tulino 39), WOU 42 (Darby 22).
Digs – SPU 57 (Lopez 20, Cunningham 11, Tulino 10), WOU 59 (Hornback 12).
Block assists / solo – SPU 18 / 2 solo (Smith 6 / 1 solo), WOU 12 / 2 solo (Buman 4 / 0 solo, Johnson 4 / 0 solo).
Hitting (kills-errors-attacks) – SPU 56-16-143—280 (Wilks 10-2-20—400, LaRochelle 15-3-31—387), WOU 47-19-135—207 (Hornback 19-4-44—318).
Attendance – 237.
 
 
Records
Seattle Pacific 9-16, 9-8 GNAC.
Western Oregon 15-10, 7-9 GNAC.
 
 
Next match
Montana State Billings at Seattle Pacific
Saturday, Nov. 23     2:00 p.m.
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.


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