EUGENE, Ore. – The Northwest Christian University volleyball team served up 14 service aces on Saturday afternoon, en route to a 25-18, 25-13, 26-24 sweep of Cascade College in Cascade Collegiate Conference action. Freshman Whitney Hoff (Marist HS) and sophomore Cassie Bishop (Winston, Ore.) combined for eleven of those aces.

Head Coach Mike Gaffaney said, “We have been working on scoring points on our serves and disrupting our opponents offense and we have been doing both successfully, which is a good thing.”

The Beacons took the first set by seven points, using a strong offensive attack that yielded 12 kills without a hitting error. Bishop began a strong afternoon with five kills in the set, along with five digs. NCU never trailed in the second set and while the Thunderbirds kept things close early on, the Beacons pulled away for the 12-point margin of victory. Leading 10-8, Northwest Christian marched away on an 11-2 run, giving them an insurmountable 21-10 lead. After trading jabs, Bishop closed the game out with her tenth kill.

NCU came out of the intermission slowly, allowing Cascade to step out to a 3-0 lead. The teams traded leads three times and were tied on nine points of the first 14 points before the Beacons were able to jump in front. Tied 14-14, a kill and service ace from Tessa Greatwood, combined with a T-bird hitting error gave NCU a 17-14 lead. They continued to lead at 23-19, on the cusp of victory, when Cascade mounted a threatening rally.

After a kill by Natalie Forgan, the Beacons made three straight unforced errors to allow the Thunderbirds to tie the score. A service ace from Carla Crowder put the Cascade ahead 24-23, staring down at their own set-point. But Cotie Howard ended the rally with a set-tying kill and after a Bishop ace gave NCU their own match-point, a Cascade attack error ended the contest.

The Beacons (11-12, 4-10 CCC) avenged an earlier loss at the hands of Cascade and NCU is now 5-1 all-time against the Thunderbirds. Northwest Christian has won three straight matches for the second time this season and has jumped into a three-way tie for seventh place in the Cascade Conference. Coach Gaffaney said, “We have really started to play more as a team. We are getting contributions from all over the floor, our offense is crisp off of serve receive and we are distributing the ball well to all of our hitters.”

NCU was led by Bishop, who finished the night with 12 kills, six digs, five service aces and a block. She hit .308 from the floor. Brooke Stribling added 6 kills and 11 digs and Howard chipped in six kills along with three blocks (2 solo). Hoff finished with a season-high 6 service aces along with seven digs and a team-best 15 assists. Charlie Van Loon also had three blocks for the Beacons.

Cascade (5-15, 1-13 CCC) was led by Forgan who finished with ten kills and seven digs. Crowder collected a match-high 20 assists, along with two service aces.

Northwest Christian will be back in action on Friday when they play host to Northwest University at 3:00 pm.