NAMPA, Idaho – Maiya Lester turned in a career-high 17 kills on Thursday night, helping Seattle Pacific grind out a 3-2 (22-25, 25-14, 25-15, 23-25, 15-10) win over Northwest Nazarene that extended the Falcons' current winning streak to five matches.
FROM THE COACH
"Exciting and competitive match," head coach
Jason Rhine said. "For our team to travel to Boise in the morning and compete in the evening is a unique challenge, and I thought they handled the preparation and execution of the match really well. Both teams put up good offensive numbers overall."
"Maiya came in and helped our offense find the extra kills we needed to push past their defense," Rhine added. "Our setters distributed the offense well. The blockers were challenged with good swings from NNU all night but came up with big blocks in huge moments to help us seal the win. We are excited to travel back tomorrow and prepare for a competitive match and fun environment out at Central."
HOW IT HAPPENED
- The Nighthawks took the opening set 25-22, hitting .279 as a team while limiting the Falcons to .077.
- SPU responded in set two, winning 25-14 behind five kills from Lester and four kills from Audra Rose.
- As a team, the Falcons had just two attack errors during the second set of the match.
- Megan Omlid helped the Falcons carry that momentum into set three, starting it out with an ace as SPU went on to take the set 25-15.
- Lester led the group with four kills during the set, while Amaya Evans and Omlid had three kills each.
- NNU didn't go away quietly by forcing a fifth set with a 25-23 win in set four.
- The Nighthawks hit a match-best .459 during the fourth set.
- The Falcons closed out the match with a 15-10 win in the decisive fifth set.
- SPU hit an even .400 with no attack errors during the fifth set to help them take the match.
FROM THE BOX SCORE
- The Falcons finished the match with a.305 hitting percentage, while limiting the Nighthawks to a .219 hitting percentage.
- Lester led the Falcons with 17 kills on 38 attempts, hitting .368 for the match.
- Rose followed with 13 kills on a .650 clip, adding a team-high total blocks.
- Evans added 10 kills.
- Peyton Ensign ran the offense with 27 assists, while Avery Veenendall chipped in 20 of her own.
- Christina Lopez paced the defense with 17 digs, with Omlid adding 13.
- Makayla Hickman led the Falcons with two of their six service aces.
BEYOND THE BOX SCORE
- SPU extended its winning streak to five matches, the longest streak since Oct. 7, 2023-Oct. 26, 2023.
- That run went on to be a seven-match winning streak for the Falcons in 2023.
- SPU also owned a 10-match winning streak during that same season.
- Lester's 17 kills were the most of any match in her career with the Falcons.
UP NEXT
The Falcons travel to Ellensburg, Wash., to take on 21
st-ranked Central Washington on Saturday at 1:00 p.m.
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