MONMOUTH, Ore.—Pulling away in the middle section of each set, Central Washington University defeated Western Oregon University 3-0 (25-17, 25-21, 25-22) in GNAC volleyball action on Saturday night inside the New P.E. Building.

After receiving votes in the NCAA national poll last week, Central Washington University (8-4, 3-1 GNAC) outhit the home side .284 to .134 and never trailed by more than two points in the match.

Western Oregon University (5-6, 1-3 GNAC) will return to action on Sept. 28 when it travels to face Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C.

Already down 1-0, WOU faced a 22-10 deficit in the second set but rallied with an 11-1 run to pull within two points following an Alisha Bettinson kill. The Wildcats righted the ship, however, by forcing a pair of WOU attacking errors and snaring the 2-0 advantage.

Meeting with tied scores on a dozen occasions, the two teams played evenly in the third. The final tie occurred at 20-20 after a Sydney Blankenship kill for the home side. CWU returned with back-to-back kills and a combo block by Madison Weg and Sara Joffs to approach match point. On a WOU serve, Sabrina Wheelhouse finished the match after an assist by teammate Niki Cook.

Betinson led WOU with 16 kills on 42 swings while Mariella Vandenkooy was next up with six kills. Leila Holt tallied a team-high19 assists and Libbie Hoene notched nine digs in the match.

CWU was led by a 12-kill effort from Sabrina Wheelhouse.