EUGENE, Ore. – The Northwest Christian University softball team took an NAIA Top-12 team to five sets for the third time at home this season and for the third time, the higher ranked team prevailed. The No. 7 Warriors took Friday's contest, 23-25, 25-22, 25-21, 22-25, 15-7.
 
The Beacons came out strong as they attempted to defend their home court with neither team leading by more than three at any point in the first two sets. The combatants were tied 18 times and saw nine different lead changes as each team won a set.
 
By the time the third set rolled around, both teams seemed to be firing on all cylinders. The Beacons hit .393 in the set with just one attack error but the Warriors was just a little stronger, hitting .455 with an astonishing 20 of their 25 points coming via kills.
 
With their backs against the wall, the Beacons took charge in set four as they blasted out to a 5-0 lead fueled by two kills from Cambria Lingenfelder and one from Jessica Northcutt. The lead was short-lived as Corban responded out of their timeout with five straight points of their own. Sarah Randall had back-to-back kills followed by a block for the visitors.
 
NCU regained the lead and after a 9-9 tie pointed back-to-back kills from Claire Salness and Payton Jones to claim the lead for good. Northcutt put on the final touch with her sixth kill of the set, sending the Beacons to their sixth tie-breaking set of the season.
 
Everything that had gone right for the Beacons over the first two hours seemed to disappear over the final 15 minutes as Corban took care of business, hitting .389 with nine kills, an ace, and a block, keeping their undefeated conference record intact. NCU had just three kills in the deciding set while committing five attack errors.
 
Head Coach Jason Corwin said, "I thought we played a really solid game throughout and just weren't ourselves at the end. We didn't do what we had done to get us there and we lost our aggressiveness. When you play the caliber of opponents that we have up and down our conference the little things matter and they caught up to us in the fifth set."
 
Corban (12-3, 9-0 CCC) holds onto their one-game lead in the conference behind the efforts of Cassie Cunningham who led all players with 17 kills. Avari Ridgway and Jacquelyn Clark posted ten kills each while Randall finished her night hitting .438 with eight kills and a match-high seven blocks. Jadyn Mullen posted a double-double with 27 assists and 11 digs, adding three aces and Libero Kealani Ontai recorded a match-best 18 digs.
 
The strength of the freshman class was on display for the Beacons as Lingenfelder, Northcutt, and Jones combined for 31 kills, hitting .354. Lingenfelder recorded a double-double with 11 kills and 13 digs while Jones led the team with 12 kills and four blocks. Northcutt added eight kills off the bench.
 
Sophomore Makenna Northern once again produced a strong all-around effort. Her match-high 47 assists were just the tip of the iceberg as she added six kills (hitting .417), eight digs and three block assists. Junior Claire Salness added nine kills on the evening while leading the Beacons with 16 digs.
 
Natalie Downes crossed the 200-block mark for her career on Friday night with three blocks. With 201 blocks and 484 kills, she is on the verge of becoming just the fourth player in NCU history to record 500 kills and 200 blocks in a career, midway through her junior season.
 
With just the single match for the weekend, the Beacons will prepare for their most difficult road trip of the season next weekend. NCU will face No. 23 College of Idaho on Friday and No. 5 Eastern Oregon on Saturday before closing out against Walla Walla on Sunday. "We are young and we are resilient," said Corwin, "and we will continue to work on fixing those little things that can push us over the top. I believe in this team and we are going to see some great things from this group in the second half of conference."