EUGENE, Ore. – Northwest Christian University had 31 unforced errors on Saturday evening, suffering a difficult three-set loss to Oregon Tech, 25-19, 25-23, 26-24. In the match, however, senior Libero Mercedes Leclaire crushed the school record for digs in a three-set match, collecting 26.

Head Coach Mike Gaffaney said, “This was a disappointing loss for us tonight. We are a better team and Oregon Tech has been struggling this season and we really beat ourselves tonight. We were questioning a lot of the touches and a lot of the balls tonight, and we are going to have to struggle to overcome this. I don't want to take anything away from them, but NCU beat NCU tonight. We have to just fight to get past this and move forward.”

Oregon Tech (4-13, 3-5 CCC) was led by Miranda Weitz, who hit .455 with a team-high 11 kills. Megan Christensen added 10 kills and 18 digs and Sarah Svedin finished the night with 22 assists and four service aces.

The Beacons (4-11, 0-7 CCC) had many bright spots despite the outcome, led by the 26 digs from Leclaire, who had 13 in the final set alone. Tessa Greatwood and Cassie Bishop each had 11 kills and Bishop completed the double-double with ten digs. Whitney Hoff added 19 assists and 12 digs for NCU and Kalyssa Koontz recorded five blocks, her second-highest output of the season.

Northwest Christian will return to action on Friday as they travel to Portland to face Concordia University. The Cavaliers swept NCU earlier this season in Eugene.