EUGENE, Ore. – The Northwest Christian University volleyball team lost their home finale on Saturday afternoon to Concordia University in four sets, 25-23, 22-25, 25-15, 25-22.
NCU battled to a tight loss in the first set and came back to tie the match with a victory in set two. Both of the final two sets were characterized by Concordia jumping out to early leads with the Beacons never quite able to recover. “I was really pleased with how we played today,” said head coach Mike Gaffaney, “and really for the whole weekend. Inherently, we have had hiccups at critical times and we haven’t learned how to put a team away, but despite all of that, we played a strong team from our conference and we played them strong.”
Concordia (14-7, 11-3 CCC) currently sits in third place in the Cascade Collegiate Conference and clinched a playoff berth with their victory today. The Cavs were led by junior Raluca Dinca, hitting .316 with 15 kills and 14 digs. Mariana Toscano also had a double-double with a match-high 16 kills and 12 digs. Kim Lindow registered a match-best 20 digs and Skyler Kamaka had a strong afternoon setting the ball, picking up 54 assists.
Northwest Christian (6-18, 1-14 CCC) had a match-high 16 kills from
Cassie Bishop, who added 14 digs for her eighth double-double of the season. But it was
Emily Miller with the most dominating performance, hitting a season-high .429 with 13 kills and just one attack error. In her final home match, senior
Tessa Greatwood added 11 kills with three blocks and one service ace. Senior
Mercedes Leclaire, also playing her final match at the Morse Event Center, had 13 digs and
Bridget Marasigan (pictured) led the team with 15 digs. Sophomore setter
Whitney Hoff also had a double-double, her sixth of the season, with 24 assists and 11 digs.
The Beacons will close out the 2009 season with three matches on the road, beginning on Friday night when they travel to Klamath Falls to take on Oregon Tech.