Volleyball | 9/18/2008 2:29:36 AM
Box Score MONMOUTH, Ore. - The Western Oregon University volleyball team (8-1) opened Great Northwest Athletic Conference with a three-set sweep of Saint Martin's, 25-13, 25-8 and 25-18, Thursday, Sept. 18, at the Physical Education Building.
This was the sixth-straight victory and third consecutive sweep for the Wolves as it improved its record to 8-1 on the season and 1-0 in the GNAC. Western Oregon committed only nine errors and had 39 kills in the match compared to 24 errors and 22 kills for Saint Martin's.
The Wolves received a balanced attack all around as five student-athletes posted four or more kills. Laura Sakala lead the team with nine kills and a .533 kill percentage while Stephanie Beeler had seven, Lisa Martini five Stacey Bennett four and Sharon Peterson four. Amy Herron assisted on 33 of WOU's 39 kills for a .943 assist percentage (33-of-35). Danielle English was the team leader with 15 digs.
"Every conference win is a special win," said head coach Brad Saindon. "We have been working on and stressing certain aspects of our game and it is great to see those things transfer over to the match and result in a win."
In the first set, the Wolves fell behind early as the Saints took a 3-1 lead but they responded with a 12-2 run capped off by five-straight points on Mainer serves. After exchanging points, Saint Martin's put together three consecutive points before a Peterson kill ended SMU's rally at 15-9. WOU would then go on to take 10 of the next 14 points for the 25-13 set victory.
Bennett and Beeler each led Western Oregon on 7-0 runs as WOU cruised to a 25-8 second set victory. The Wolves racked up a .387 kill percentage with 12 kills on 31 attempts and only two errors to the Saints -.067 kill percentage (three kills, five errors on 30 attempts). In the set, Amy Herron posted 10 assists on 12 attempts as Sakala led the team with six kills and English had 10 digs. The Wolves capped off the match with an 8-1 run which featured five Herron serves.
The third set was played much closer throughout until WOU was leading 14-12. It was then Beeler's turn in the serving rotation as she led the Wolves to 5-0 run to make it 19-12. Western coasted from that point to win the set 25-18 and take the match 3-0.
This was the seventh-straight win for Western Oregon over Saint Martin's as improved its all-time record against the Saints to 22-3. Four WOU student-athletes recorded 10 or more serves, Beeler (19), Herron (13), Bennett (12) and Mainer (10), as Saint Martin's high-servers posted eight apiece.
The Western Oregon volleyball team will be on the road next week for two conference matches. First it will face Northwest Nazarene (6-2) in Nampa, Idaho, Thursday, Sept. 25, at 6:00 p.m., before taking on Montana State Billings (2-12), in Billings, Mont., Saturday, Sept. 27, at 6:00 p.m.
"We are down to the part of our schedule where it really matters," said Saindon. "We have to go to Northwest Nazarene, which is one of the favorites to win our conference. We were beat badly there last season so it will be a critical game in our conference schedule."
