Volleyball | 11/8/2008 4:36:57 PM
Box Score ELLENSBURG, Wash. - The No. 24 ranked Western Oregon University volleyball team clinched a tie for the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship, defeating Central Washington 25-23, 25-21, 22-25, 22-25 and 15-13, Saturday, Nov. 8.
The win also guarantees the Wolves the GNAC's automatic berth into the NCAA Division II tournament. The victory moved WOU to 20-2 on the season and to 13-1 in the GNAC as it continues to lead the conference by two matches. The 20 wins are the most in a season for Western Oregon since joining the NCAA in 2000.
Laura Sakala had a season-high 17 kills and posted a .279 hitting percentage (17-5-43) to lead Western Oregon. Amy Herron posted a double-double as she led the Wolves with 30 assists and matched her season-high with 21 digs. Stacey Bennett added a double-double of her own with 10 kills and 13 digs. Danielle English had 30 digs to lead five Wolves in double figures in the category. Sakala also had eight assisted blocks to help Western Oregon win the block battle 13.0-10.5.
As a team, Western Oregon held Central Washington to a .069 hitting percentage in the match as it forced the Wildcats into 13 additional hitting errors. This was the Wolves best performance in that category since holding Alaska Fairbanks to a .043 mark, Oct. 2.
"I am so happy for our players, they worked so hard for this," said head coach Brad Saindon. "It is very, very hard to win a championship and we found that out. We had to fight and claw to pull out this win."
After splitting the first four sets the Wolves found themselves down 13-11 in the fifth and deciding set before taking the final four points to earn the victory and finish 7-1 on the road in the GNAC. Down 13-11, Western Oregon got an attack error from CWU, a kill by Stephanie Beeler, another CWU attack error and Sakala finished it off with a kill as the Wolves remained perfect in the fifth set this season.
The Western Oregon volleyball team will try to clinch the GNAC title outright Thursday, Nov. 13, as it takes on Northwest Nazarene at 7:00 p.m., in Monmouth, Ore.
The Wolves will advance to the NCAA Division II tournament, regardless of the outcome of the following to matches, by virtue of holding all possible tiebreaker scenarios against second place Western Washington.
