CALDWELL, Idaho – Lightning has struck twice for the NCU women's volleyball team, this time in the post-season. The Beacons shocked No. 25 College of Idaho on their home floor for the second time this season, and just the second time in school history on Tuesday, 25-18, 25-23, 25-20.
 
NCU earned their first-ever 20-win season and their first-ever trip to the CCC volleyball championship final site as they will head to Ashland on Friday night to take on tournament host Southern Oregon in the semifinals.  
 
The Beacons used nine aces and eight blocks while forcing the Yotes into 25 attack errors to pull out the victory. NCU ended the night hitting .212 while C of I finished at a .093 attack percentage. NCU used their dominant night at the service line, which included five aces from freshman Cambria Lingenfelder, to keep College of Idaho out of system for much of the evening.
 
By contrast, sophomore setter Makenna Northern put together a strong night of distribution, leading NCU to a .357 attacking clip in the first set. In that opening frame, the score was tied 5-5 early before an 8-1 Beacon run put it on ice.
 
Set Two was full of runs with the Yotes jumping out to a 3-0 lead but Lingenfelder answered with three consecutive aces to spark a 6-0 Beacon surge. C of I rallied from a 21-18 deficit to pull even at 23-23 but back-to-back kills from Freshman Payton Jones ended the set.
 
NCU bolted to a 7-1 lead in set three and led wire-to-wire, completing a six-set season sweep in the J.A. Albertson Activities Center.
 
The Beacons (20-9) were led by Lingenfelder with ten kills and seven digs. Northern added 31 assists while Jones hit .500 with six kills and four blocks. Halle Neumann gave eight kills of her own with four blocks and Claire Salness led the team with nine digs.
 
The Yotes (17-11) got a double-double from Ashley Pagan to lead the way, earning 12 kills and 12 digs. Abigail Guinn led all players with 32 assists while Drew Dobney recorded a match-high 15 digs.
 
The Beacons will join top-seed Southern Oregon, No. 2 seed Eastern Oregon and No. 3 seed Corban University in the semifinal round on Friday evening. EOU and Corban will face off at 3:30 pm and the Beacons take on the Raiders at 7:00 pm.