Volleyball storms back to take final two sets and defeat Whitman 3-2

Walla Walla, WA - For the second night in a row Willamette Volleyball played a five-set match and this time the Bearcats came out victorious with a 3-2 win over Whitman College, 14-25, 25-23, 17-25, 25-10, 15-7.

The first set went the way of the Blues after a back-and-forth start to the match.  With the Bearcats within one point at 11-10, Whitman went on to take 12 of the next 14 points and would win the opening set 25-14.

Whitman would get off to a 3-0 start in the second set and find themselves leading 18-13 before it was the Bearcats turn to close out a set.  Willamette would tie the score at twenty by taking 7 of the next 9 points and go on to take set two by a score of 25-23.

Set three would be the Blues' turn to get hot and they would win the third set 25-17, but that would mark the start of a furious finish by the Bearcats.  Willamette would win the first three points of set four and eventually take leads of 15-4 and 19-5 before sending the match to a deciding fifth set with a 25-10 win in set four.

Willamette would get off to a 4-1 lead in the final set and move ahead 9-4 after two consecutive service aces by Leina Chu.  The Blues would pull within three at 9-6, but Willamette would pull away to win the match with a 15-7 score in the final set.

Olivia Cadien led the Bearcast in kills again with 14, with Katey Cramer adding 9.  Leina Chu had 34 assists and four service aces in the match.  Defensively, Kaitlyn Westby had five blocks and Dream Takemoto contributed 19 digs.

Volleyball hits the road again midweek when they play at Pacific University on Tuesday, October 8th.  The next home match for the Bearcats is Friday, October 11th, at 7:00 pm when they host the Linfield University Wildcats.