Pirates open home matches with blowout victories

A determined Whitworth volleyball team picked up two conference wins at home over the weekend, sweeping George Fox 3-0 and defeating Pacific University 3-1.

With junior All-Northwest Conference outside hitter Cassandra Mendoza sidelined, others stepped up their play. Sophomore setter Erin White paced the Pirates with eight service aces and 63 assists through both matches while senior Brenna Bruil let the way at the net with 16 kills and ten total blocks.

Beginning the conference season with a win felt good, Head Coach Kati Bodecker said.

“I learned a lot about our team,” she said. “We’re a resilient team with a high ceiling.”

Whitworth put its resiliency on full display in Saturday’s match against Pacific. The Boxers came out strong in the first set and led 20-14 before the Bucs roared back with an 11-1 run to win 25-21. Then, after losing the second set, the Pirates came out of halftime on fire, defeating the Boxers 25-12 in the third set.

The coaches only needed to remind the team to play fearlessly and hard before the third set, Bodecker said. Once her team got there, they played well.

“Our coaches said we were playing stiff in the first two sets,” junior Corinne Bell said. “We were able to make a change and be more supportive.”

Freshman Emiko Kahler drove the Whitworth offense, hitting .385 with 12 kills in the match. Junior libero Taylor Wicht finished the match with 21 digs.

In the first game of the weekend, the Bucs had some trouble with George Fox, barely escaping an error-prone first set. The two teams combined for 19 attack errors, but Whitworth managed to come out on top 25-22.

After the first set the Pirates found their form, using tough serving to down the Bruins 25-15 and 25-22 in the second and third sets. As a team, the Bucs served up nine aces. White led the way with three and also finished with 26 assists in the match. Defensively, juniors Alexa Lindgren and Chloe Ludecker led the Pirate back-line with nine and 10 digs respectively.

The Pirates’ freshmen came to play against George Fox as well. Iris Tikhonov finished with seven kills and Kahler contributed 11 digs.

“[The freshmen] are getting comfortable and confident,” Bell said. “They make a big impact.”
Coach Bodecker gave all credit to her players post-game.

“We didn’t make any big adjustments between sets,” she said. “The team just knew they could play better, and did.”