Box Score

SEATTLE (Oct. 15) -- Junior Jordan Offutt (Leavenworth/Cascade HS) finished with 15 kills and a career-high nine digs, and freshman Kaely Kight (Spokane/Mead HS) paced the Central Washington University defense with a career-high 28 digs, but the Wildcats fell to 19th-ranked Seattle Pacific University in four sets on Saturday night. Scores were 21-25, 25-13, 25-22, 25-23 in the Falcons' favor.

The Wildcats finished with a split of their weekend road trip and are now 11-8 overall and 5-6 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. Seattle Pacific is now 14-5 overall and 8-2 in the GNAC.

"We're doing enough things to make it close against good teams, but that's not enough," CWU head coach Mario Andaya said. "We believe we can compete with these teams but we need to start believing we can beat them."

Offutt finished with a steady offensive night, totaling at least four kills in three of the four sets for her total of 15. She and senior Meg Ryan (Spokane/Mead HS) teamed up for a combined 11 kills in the first set, a frame that the Wildcats finished with a 7-3 run to break an 18-all tie. Ryan and sophomore Erin Smith (Selah) had two kills apiece over the final seven tallies in the win.

The Wildcats played from behind the entire second set, trailing 7-1 out of the gate and committing more errors (eight) than kills (five) in the 12-point loss. They rebounded in the third set to stay close with the Falcons, but fell behind after a 2-0 run at 10-10 and never caught SPU in the 25-22 loss. The fourth and final set was a similar story for CWU, as they saw eight tie scores and four lead changes before losing by the minimum two-point margin. The Wildcats actually rallied from a 23-20 deficit to tie the Falcons at 23-23, but consecutive kills by Lindsey Wodrich gave Seattle Pacific the set and match victory.

Kight had an exceptional defensive effort, especially in the first three sets. She had 23 of her digs in the first three frames, including 11 digs in the third set alone. Kight finished the two-match weekend with 49 total digs, adding 21 in Thursday's five-set win at Montana State Billings.

As a team, Central Washington was outscored by 10 in the kill department (57-47) and surrendered eight service aces. The Wildcats did edge Seattle Pacific in digs, 76-75, and nearly matched the Falcons in the blocking department with seven blocks to SPU's eight.

Individually, Ryan finished with 10 kills to complement Offutt in that department. Sophomore Chelsie Vea (Honolulu, Hawaii/Kalani HS) and junior Marcy Hjellum (Kennewick/Kamiakin HS) finished with 11 and 10 digs, respectively, while freshman Cheltzie Williams (Twin Falls, Idaho) totaled seven kills and three assisted blocks. Senior setter Carlee Marble (La Conner) registered 43 assists and seven digs.

Seattle Pacific was led by Wodrich, a Richland native, who had 19 kills, 12 digs, and three service aces. Nikki Lowell added 13 kills, a .522 hitting percentage, and five assisted blocks, while Cailin Fellows totaled 12 kills.

Central Washington will play five of its final seven matches at home inside Nicholson Pavilion, beginning with a match against Northwest Nazarene University next Saturday (Oct. 22) at 7 p.m.