ELLENSBURG, Wash. – Western Oregon fell on the road at Central Washington on Thursday night (Nov. 17), dropping a 3-0 decision at Nicholson Pavilion. The set scores were 20-25, 26-28, 22-25 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference match.
 
The loss was WOU's fifth straight defeat away from Monmouth, putting the team's record at 10-16 overall and 7-12 in the GNAC. Central Washington, in contention for a spot in the NCAA Division II West Regional, improved to 16-11 on the year and 12-7 in league play.
 
Neither team excelled offensively, with Central Washington posting a .206 hitting percentage and 53 kills while holding the Wolves to a .154 clip and 37 putaways. CWU led in assists (50-36) and digs (63-56) as Western Oregon had the better night at the net with the blocks advantage (9.0-5.0).
 
Junior Alisha Bettinson led the Wolves with 10 kills, 13 digs and two solo blocks, while hitting .138 in the contest. It was the 18^th time this season that the outside hitter has posted double-digits in kills and her 12^th double-double. Senior Paige Orth notched nine kills (.227 hitting) and six block assists, while sophomore Amanda Short added nine kills and three block assists. Mariella Vandenkooy took 22 swings and put down six kills for a .227 hitting percentage.
 
Central Washington separated from the Wolves in the first set with a 3-0 run to break a 4-all tie early in the first game. Trailing by as many as six at 18-12, Western Oregon went on a 5-0 run after a Short kills, a CWU hitting error and three straight blocks from the WOU front line of setter Maddie Mehciz and Orth. Central would rattle off six of the final eight points to take the first set, 25-20.
 
Four straight points by CWU turned a 5-all tie into a 9-5 lead early in set two. The Wolves remained in chase mode the entire set, finding themselves down 23-20 before a 4-0 run put them on the cusp of trying the match. During the serve of redshirt freshman Libbie Hoene, two CWU ball handling errors coupled with a Hoene ace and Short kill made it a 24-23 Wolves' lead. The Wildcats wiped away three game points and sandwiched kills from Shelby Mauritson with an attack error to pull out the second set, 28-26.
 
After a pair of kills from Orth and Bettinson midway in set three, Western Oregon looked to extend the match with a 19-16 lead. Central Washington would fight back to tie the game at 20-all, 21-all and 22-all. Kiah Jones put the Wildcats up for good and the home team closed out the match after a back-to-back WOU hitting errors, the last being a combo block.
 
Mauritson had a career-high 18 kills for the Wildcats.
 
Christie Colasurdo extended her string of matches with double-digit digs to 10 in a row with 15 digs.
 
Western Oregon closes out the regular season on Saturday (Nov. 19) at Northwest Nazarene. First serve is scheduled at 2 p.m. Mountain (1 p.m. Pacific).