ELLENSBURG, Wash. (Oct. 15) – The Central Washington University volleyball team made quick work of the Seattle Pacific University Falcons, defeating the home team in straight sets (25-17, 25-11, 25-19) Thursday evening at Brougham Pavilion in Seattle, Wash.
 
The Wildcats improve to 11-5 on the season with a 7-2 mark in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference and extend their winning steak against SPU to five games.  The Falcons fall to 6-11, 4-5 in the GNAC.
 
The Wildcats hit .461 in the contest while the defense held the Falcons to a hitting percentage of .125.  The Wildcat offense was very impressive committing just seven errors and gaining 56% of their points off kills.
 
"Our approach was to stay aggressive and capitalize on loose balls and our net play was a big factor in our success on the offensive end," CWU Head Coach Mario Andaya said.  "Our presence at the net allowed us to get some easy plays offensively.  When our net players are able to control the opposing team's attack, it gives us to opportunity to score in transition and off free balls, which is something we did very well tonight."
 
Central Washington setter Catie Fry assisted on 36 of the Wildcats 42 kills on the night and helped pace the spectacular offensive night for CWU.
 
"I thought Catie [Fry] did a great job of keeping SPU off balance all night," Andaya said about his all-American setter.  "Seattle Pacific was unable to anticipate where the ball was going to go and it gave our hitters clean looks all night."
 
Linden Firethorne led the offensive attack with 12 kills while hitting .474.  Kiah Jones and Madison Weg had nine and seven kills, respectively, with Weg hitting .700 on the evening.
 
"Our hitters were on tonight," Andaya added in response to the .461 hitting percentage. "We have a lot of fire power and we attacked well from all over the court, but none of it would be possible without the great performance from our players up front."
 
The Wildcats came into the contest as the nations leader in blocks per set at 2.92, but the Falcons did not give the CWU defense many chances to keep its pace, committing 16 attack errors as the Wildcats collected only four total blocks in the match.
 
In the first set the Falcons held a 10-8 lead before the Wildcats went on a 7-0 that was highlighted by a kill and service ace by Kaitlin Quirk and a powerful kill off the hand of Kiah Jones.
 
Jones added two more kills and an attack error by the Falcons Lexi Biondi handed CWU the 25-17 set one win.
 
In the second set the Wildcats used a pair of 5-0 runs and ended the set scoring four of the final five points of the match to easily take the frame 25-11.  Quirk added four kills in the stanza while Firethorne added three.
 
Central Washington scored the first two points of the final set off a kill by Sabrina Wheelhouse and an ace off the serve of Shelby Mauritson.   The two teams traded leads for the majority of the set but a four-point run by the Wildcats sparked by back-to-back kills from Weg gave the Wildcats a 17-14 edge and a lead they would not relinquish.  Firethorne sealed the deal earing the final two kills for the Wildcats off two of Fry's 36 assists of the contest.
 
The Wildcats will look carry this momentum into their next matchup this Saturday against Saint Martin's University in Lacey, Wash. at 7 p.m.