BURNABY, B.C.—Despite falling in the first set, Simon Fraser University defended its home court with a 3-1 (22-25, 25-22, 25-17, 25-16) win over Western Oregon University in GNAC volleyball action on Thursday evening.

With the win, Simon Fraser improved to 5-8 on the season and 2-3 in GNAC competitions. Western Oregon fell to 5-7 overall and 1-4 in league contests.

The Wolves will continue its road swing at No. 10-ranked Western Washington University on Saturday, Sept. 30. Opening serve against the Vikings is set for 7 p.m.

Scoring the first three points, WOU jumped out to an early lead in the initial offering and eventually extended the advantage to seven (23-16) on back-to-back SFU attacking errors, the first of which came via a combo block by Alisha Bettinson and Morgan Haskett.

SFU creeped back to within striking distance in the first set with swings by Tessa May and Mia Ricci, but any comeback hopes were dashed as Bettinson returned with WOU's final two points for the 25-22 win.

The second set played out much like the opener, except SFU held on to the lead throughout. Once down by six (19-13), Western Oregon stormed back and pulled to within a single point (23-22) following a Sydney Blankinship kill, but stalled on the final two serves with Ricci eventually swinging for set point and the match equalizer.

Hitting .278 and .448 over the final stretch, SFU owned the final two sets to complete the home win.

Bettinson led all WOU attackers with 19 kills, while May scored 21 kills for SFU. Leila Holt notched 20 assists for the Wolves while Maddie Mehciz tallied 15 assists and seven digs.