OLYMPIA, Wash. – The NCU volleyball team can finally put a nightmarish September behind them as they ended a seven-match losing streak on Saturday night, grabbing their first CCC win of the season with a 25-21, 25-19, 25-16 over Evergreen State College.
 
The Beacons controlled the match offensively, but really put the screws on the Geoducks defensively, forcing ESC to hit in the negative percentages for the night with 28 kills and 30 errors. Eleven NCU blocks played a large factor, including six total blocks by junior Cassidy Winters, five from Kayla Ping and four from Chandler Gabrio.
 
Things started slowly for the Beacons as Evergreen jumped out to a 4-0 lead to open the first set. The Beacons kept fighting, finally breaking through to take a 17-16 lead on a hitting error by ESC's Natalie Taylor. Taylor picked up her revenge later, securing a kill to tie the game at 20-20. NCU responded strong, however, getting three blocks as they scored five of the final six points to take their first set-one victory since August 29.
 
Set two proved similar as Evergreen maintained a slim lead for the majority of play. Trailing 18-14, the Beacons took a time out and whatever coach Pitre told the team seemed to work as the Beacons responded with an 11-1 rally to close the set. Evergreen suffered from nine attack errors during that stretch.
 
The meltdown to end the second set seemed to effect Evergreen as the third set belonged to the Beacons from the first serve. NCU built an early 7-2 lead and never looked back, leading by as many as 12 points before a Ping kill ended the night.
 
The Beacons (8-7, 1-7 CCC) hit .163 on the night, led by nine kills from both Ping and Taylor Burnett. Kendall Bergsten added six kills and nine digs. Laurie Salness recorded a match-high with 27 assists and Haley Damian led all players with 12 digs.
 
Evergreen (2-12, 2-7 CCC) had a match-high 11 kills from Jorden Porter while Taylor finished with eight kills and a team-high three blocks.
 
After starting the season 7-0, the Beacons were excited to enter CCC play on September 4. The path through the first half of the conference schedule, however, proved most unfriendly with the Beacons losing seven straight before Saturday's big victory. The win helped NCU avoid falling under .500 for the first time this season and NCU will now return home next weekend to take on Warner Pacific (3-5 CCC) on Friday and Multnomah (0-8) on Saturday.