The Puget Sound women’s volleyball team put another notch in their belt this week, continuing in winning form against the Willamette Bearcats in a 3-1 victory on Friday, Oct. 11 in the Memorial Fieldhouse. The Loggers improved to a 6-1 record in the Northwest Conference (NWC), now only trailing their Tacoma rivals Pacific Lutheran University. The Loggers are now ranked 19th nationally and improve to a four-game winning streak.
The match was a slugfest right from the start, with the Loggers and the Bearcats trading the opening two sets. The Loggers opened by winning the first set 25-19, and the Bearcats responded by taking the second set by the same score.
The Loggers were led in the first set by senior Jackie Harvey (Santa Barbara, Calif.) and junior Nicolette Reynaud (Los Gatos, Calif.), who each picked up five kills to snatch the first set from the jaws of the Bearcats.
Despite the impressive performance from Harvey and Reynaud, the first set was the worst that the Loggers played all match on the offensive front.
The third set seemed to look well in hand for the Loggers, producing a 5-1 lead over the Bearcats in the first few plays of the set. Logger confidence did not hold the 5-1 lead long as the home team committed several service errors to let the Bearcats back into the game. Before long, a few Bearcat kills saw the teams tied at nine a piece.
Sensing that they were slipping, the Loggers racked up the next seven points to put the pressure on the Bearcats to stay in the game, with the Loggers up 16-9.
A reply was not far off, as the Bearcats also found it in themselves to make a run at it, and scored the next 10 points to cut the Logger lead to only three points.
Finally this battle of a third set ended with the Loggers rattling off a 6-2 run to finish the set at 25-18.
The Loggers had an impressive attacking display in this set, putting together an exceptional 12 kills on only 28 offensive opportunities, easily making it the best attacking display from the Loggers that evening.
The Loggers looked to close out a streaky match in the fourth set that looked to be similar to the previous ones.
Both teams answered each other’s challenges with regularity, but the Loggers took an 8-7 lead early in proceedings.
It seemed the Loggers would pull away as they took five of the next six points, but the Bearcats again showed resilience by cutting the lead within three at 15-12. The Loggers finally looked to pull away late in the fourth, creating a 22-13 lead off some impressive play from Reynaud and sophomore Heather Sangster (Los Altos, Calif.). Reynaud and Sangster combined for five kills to put the Loggers solidly in the driver’s seat.
The Bearcats seemed like they might have one last push left in them, but the Logger lead was insurmountable and the home team took the fourth and final set 25-18.
Harvey had the most impressive stats of the night with a double-double that included 17 kills and 21 digs.
Fellow senior Marissa Florant (Palo Alto, Calif.) also racked up a double-double with 11 kills and 19 digs.
Impressive serving from Harvey and junior number eight Jalene Toy (Snohomish, Wash.) gave the Loggers some crucial points near the end of the match.
Both Harvey and Toy had four service aces and three of Toy’s four aces came in the third set.
Rounding out the impressive stats for the night was senior Jenni Brehove (Vista, Calif.), who assisted on 46 of the Logger kills of the night.
Harvey’s strong weekend led her to win NWC student-athlete of the week.
If she continues to play like she has been she could be considered one of the better players in all of Division III.
