EUGENE, Ore.  – The Northwest Christian University volleyball team hit the road for the first time this conference season, heading to Washington and coming away with a split. In the process, senior Kayla Olson crossed the 1000-dig plateau for her career, becoming the fourth NCU player to hit the milestone.
 
The weekend started off on a sour note as NCU fell to Evergreen in four, 18-25, 25-23, 25-18, 25-18. The Beacons looked to be cruising to start the match, hitting .414 in the first set with 14 kills. Unfortunately, they couldn't hold on to that traction and the Geoducks came back to win the next three sets.
 
Head Coach Jason Corwin said, "We played a good first set in all phases of the game but Evergreen made some adjustments and we didn't. They played well and hit hard consistently. We have some things that we need to do differently if we are going to be successful and I expect us to respond positively. This is a great team with a lot of heart."
 
Claire Salness led the NCU attack with 15 kills, hitting .293 and adding 11 digs. Taylor Gould added ten kills while Payton Jones, Natalie Downes and Makenna Northern each had a hand in three blocks. Northern picked up 41 assists and 14 digs while Olson led the team with 20 digs.
 
Evergreen, who remained undefeated in conference with the win, was led by Zoe Shaw, posting a match-high 16 kills. Tasha Hungate added 11 kills, hitting .400. Sierra Wolf posted a match-high 51 assists and Leiko Yamauchi led all players with 25 digs.
 
The Beacons rebounded in a big way on Saturday, taking down Northwest University in three sets, 25-18, 25-19, 25-11. NCU had an efficient attack all evening, hitting .346 and out-killing the Eagles, 49-27. It was just the second win for NCU in Kirkland over the past six years.
 
The Beacons had five service aces in the match and were able to get through the night without an ace against them. "We responded really well after some adversity against another very good team in our conference," said Corwin. "Our offense really clicked tonight and to have no receiving errors against the most aggressive serving team in our conference was remarkable."
 
Northern had a remarkable game quarterbacking the offense as she averaged over 15 assists per set, earning 47 assists to set a new NCU single-match record for three-game matches. The previous record was 42 and stood for six years.
 
Cambria Lingenfelder had the biggest night of her young career on the outside, leading all players with 15 kills and an attack percentage of .520. She added 13 digs and a pair of service aces. Salness and Jessica Northcutt had ten kills each while Payton Jones posted five blocks.
 
Olson, who hit the 1000-dig milestone early in the second set, went on to collect 18 digs in the match, giving her 1,016 for her career.
 
Corwin said, "It was another stellar performance for Kayla tonight. Kayla is the consummate team-plater and will do anything, play any role to help the team be successful. We measure success for Liberos by digs-per-set, and she has clearly done well there, but what doesn't get noticed is her passing. She does such a good job of keeping our offense in system, and we saw that again tonight. She was nearly perfect passing against a good serving team. When you add her own serving capabilities to get aces and she is just the full package Libero. She is a pleasure to coach and I am honored to be coaching her."
 
The Beacons (9-4, 1-3 CCC) will return home next weekend for another tough set of conference matches. The Beacons take on Oregon Tech (10-4, 3-1) on Friday before hosting No. 5 Southern Oregon (13-1, 4-0) on Saturday. Both matches are scheduled for 7:00 pm starts.