FOREST GROVE, Ore. -- An excellent night of hitting leads Puget Sound over the Pacific, as they sweep the Boxers 3-0 to conclude their Oregon road trip.
How it Happened
The Loggers hit a whopping .394 on the evening as a team, racking up 52 kills in 3 sets.
Aubrey Tanner got the hot hand early, giving the Loggers three points on three straight kills.
Mia Fedota also hit well early, picking up two kills of her own to make it 6-4 early in the first set. The Boxers held on, and even took an 11-10 lead, but Puget Sound didn't back down. The team strung together a 4-1 run to get back in front, as
Gena Fink picked up her second kill of the evening.
Tanner and Fedota picked up three kills between them, putting the Loggers up 14-12. After a Boxer kill, a 6-1 Puget Sound run put the set out of reach.
Nicolette Raduziner's three kills in a row led the way, and a
Samantha Keightley ace made it 20-14.
Maddie Badger, after having a quiet start to the set, started to pick up the pace at the end of the first set. She strung together three kills, and a final Tanner kill put the first set away, 25-21.
Puget Sound got off to a great start in the second set, pulling away 8-2 early. Badger contributed four kills in the Loggers' run, with Tanner picking up two of her own as well. Despite Puget Sound's great start, the Boxers came right back with a 5-0 run.
Ursula Harrington started to get involved, picking up two kills in three points to put the Loggers back up four.
Raduziner then had three straight kills, but a small Pacific run made it a 14-12 ball game. Badger added her fifth and sixth kills of the set to lead the Loggers on a 5-0 run, pulling ahead 19-12.
Calista Davis got her first kill of the evening during the run, with Tanner adding another as well. Fink and Harrington put back-to-back kills to good use, continuing to show the brightness of the future of Logger volleyball.
Viviann Garcia and Harrington teamed up for a block to end the set, as the Loggers took set two, 25-16.
Badger got the Loggers off to a great start with a kill to lead off the third set, with Tanner following with two more kills to add to her total.
Charlotte Fleetwood, who came into the game during the third set, got her first kill of the night to make it 4-2. The Boxers pulled back to make it 6-5, but a kill by
Hattie Villegas got the Loggers back on track.
Down 11-9, Puget Sound put together an 8-1 run to pull ahead once again. A pair of kills by Badger and a Raduziner ace got the log rolling, with Villegas adding two more kills as well. Alexis Higgens, who came in to serve in the third set, went on a 4-0 serving run that ended with an ace. Villegas kept the hot hand, securing her fourth and final kill of the game. Pacific made an attempt to come back, tying the game at 21 apiece after a 6-1 scoring run. Kills by Tanner and Badger closed out the set, as the Loggers took this one, 25-22.
Both Tanner and Badger finished with 14 kills apiece, both hitting over .475 for the game. Keightley led the defensive statistics, recording a game-high 11 digs to go along with two aces. Nearly everyone on the team got solid minutes against the Boxers, in an important game to build depth and give the Loggers a confidence boost heading into their rivalry game against Pacific Lutheran.
What Happens Next
The Loggers play host to cross-town rival PLU on Tuesday, October 20th. The game is set to begin at 7:00 pm in the Memorial Fieldhouse.
