MONMOUTH, Ore. (Oct. 24) – Led by the seventh double-double of the season from sophomore outside hitter Alisha Bettinson and a fighting comeback spirit, the Western Oregon University volleyball team picked up a four-game victory (25-19, 25-23, 21-25, 29-27) over visiting Saint Martin's University on Saturday night in the New P.E. Building.
 
WOU won their third straight match to improve to 7-14 overall. The Wolves also pulled into a tie for seventh place in the GNAC standing with Seattle Pacific at 4-8. Saturday's triumph was also the 101^st in the WOU era for head coach Brad Saindon, who reached his 100-win milestone on Thursday against Seattle Pacific.
 
Saint Martin's fell to 2-16 overall and 1-11 in the league with Saturday's loss.
 
Bettinson, an outside hitter, led all hitters with 14 kills and 10 digs. Saturday's match was the third match in a row and 10^th time in the last 13 matches that Bettinson tallied 10 or more digs.
 
WOU used a pair of five-point rallies to separate from the Saints in the opening set. After SMU pulled within three points at 22-19, the Saints committed three successive errors to give WOU win in game one, 25-19.
 
The Wolves built a 13-9 lead in game two before the Saints made adjustments to pull even at 18-18. A Bettinson kill gave WOU their first game point opportunity. Two SMU points put the Wolves in the tenuous spot of losing the game, but Bettinson came up with a big swing for the close 25-23 triumph.
 
After the break, Saint Martin's ramped up the intensity and forced the Wolves into nine attack errors to force a fourth game after a 25-21 set win.
 
The Saints won the first four points and sprinted out to an 11-4 lead in an attempt to send the match to a fifth set. WOU kept battling by feeding Bettinson and Sydney Blankinship to pull even at 22-22. The Wolves pulled ahead and had two match points wiped away. SMU had two game points foiled by the home team. Consecutive kills from Amanda Short, Leila Holt and Blankinship closed out a wild 29-27 game four win for WOU.
 
Blankinship and Short each had nine kills while Paige Kelsey and Mariella Vandenkooy each added eight kills. Libero Christie Colasurdo had a match-high 27 digs and Sheila Limas De La Cruz dug 10 more attacks. The freshman setter duo combined for 40 asssits – Maddie Mehciz with 30 and Holt finishing with 10.
 
Julie Wabinga led the SMU attack with 13 kills.
 
Western Oregon will be on the road next week beginning Thursday, Oct. 29 at Northwest Nazarene. First serve is scheduled for 7 p.m. Mountain (6 p.m. Pacific) in Nampa, Idaho.