EUGENE, Ore. – Senior Outside Hitter Brooke Stribling had 19 kills on Friday night, leading Northwest Christian University to a 25-21, 14-25, 25-11, 25-21 victory over Warner Pacific College in Cascade Collegiate Conference action. It was the first victory ever for NCU against the Knights in six tries.

The last time that the teams clashed, back on September 6th, NCU jumped out to a two-sets-to-zero lead up in Portland, only to see the Knights climb back to win the next three sets and the match. “That loss has been heavy on their minds, since we saw them at their place” said Head Coach Mike Gaffaney. “I think this win meant a lot to the team.”

NCU once again took the first set on Friday, but faltered in the second set as WPC led the whole way. Gaffaney said, “We led down in the second game. The girls talked about that during the break, and it was good to see them recognize it and be able to come out and overcome that convincingly in the third set.”

The third set was the Beacons strongest of the match, as they hit .250 with just four unforced errors. Stribling had six kills and all three of her blocks in the set to pace the Beacons. NCU closed out the set with ten straight points with Cassie Bishop serving that included four of Striblings kills.

Stribling finished with a double-double for the Beacons (10-12, 3-10 CCC) adding eleven digs to her team-high 19 kills and three blocks. Senior Middle Blocker Cotie Howard also had a double-double (16 digs, 11 kills) as did freshman Setter Whitney Hoff with ten digs and 29 assists. The Beacons collected 82 total digs on the evening, getting a season-high 25 from junior Mercedes LeClaire. Bishop was also in double-digits with 14 digs and the sophomore Outside Hitter also put down four of NCU's eleven service aces.

“The key for us tonight,” said Gaffaney, “was really clicking on our combinations off of serve receive and not being afraid to run a quick tempo offense in transition tonight. It seemed like every time a play was called for Brooke, she was putting the ball on the floor.”

Warner Pacific (6-10, 4-10 CCC) was led by Kara Veach, who had a match-high 23 kills, hitting .333. Veach added 14 digs. Leah Gradwohl also had a double-double with 23 digs and 12 kills and Molly Webb added 18 digs and three aces for the Knights.

Northwest Christian will be back in action on Saturday afternoon as they play host to Cascade College at 1:00 pm.