BELLINGHAM, Wash. (Oct. 24) – The Central Washington University volleyball team defeated Western Washington University 3-1 (25-24, 14-25, 25-19, 25-21) Saturday night at Whatcom Community College.
 
The win marked the first Wildcat victory in Bellingham since 2005.  In fact in the previous nine matches on the road at WWU the Wildcats had won just three total sets.
 
"It feels great to get this win, we endured a long match against SFU and we fine tuned a few things in preparation for this match," CWU Head Coach Mario Andaya said, "I am extremely proud of the effort and fight this team had today.  It was a tough environment with standing room only, and we did a good job of focusing and playing our style tonight."
 
The win improves CWU to 14-5 on the season and 10-2 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.  Western Washington suffered its second straight defeat and now stands with a 16-4 record, 10-2 in the GNAC.  Both CWU and WWU are tied with Alaska Anchorage and Northwest Nazarene for the top spot in the conference.
 
Kiah Jones spearheaded the Wildcat offense and the Vikings had little response to her efforts.  The junior finished with 19 kills and hit a staggering .545 committing just one attack error in 33 attempts.
 
"Kiah Jones was phenomenal," Andaya said of his junior outside hitter.  "At one point we just had the feeling she was going to get a kill every time, she was unstoppable tonight. It was fun to watch."
 
Linden Firethorne aided the Wildcat attack with 18 kills and setter Catie Fry handed out 43 assists, helping CWU to a .325 hitting percentage.
 
Both team hit the ball well on the night as WWU posted a .305 hitting percentage.  Central Washington hit .500 in the third set, and despite a shaky start to the second set CWU was in control for the majority of the match.
 
In the opening set the Wildcat built a 7-3 lead off kills by Madison Weg, Sabrina Wheelhouse, Firethorne, and a block at the net by Fry and Kaitlin Quirk.
 
The Vikings pulled to within one point at 7-6, but a 4-0 run aided by a huge kill by Jones gave the Wildcats an 11-6 advantage and forced a WWU timeout.
 
After a few runs by the Vikings, the home team was able to tie the set up at 24-24. Quirk touched down a kill on the WWU side of the net and Jones finished off the set with a kill to give the Wildcats the set victory.
 
Back-to-back aces by the Vikings put the Wildcats in a 0-2 hole to start the second set.  The Vikings extended their lead to 9-1 before a service error ended WWU's scoring streak.
 
The Wildcats could not find a rhythm as they found themselves down 12-3 two of those points coming off WWU errors.
 
The Wildcats rallied off a pair of service aces by Rachel Hanses and Quirk and a pair of kills by Fry.  A pair of blocks forcing a WWU timeout with CWU down 9-14 also aided the Wildcats.
 
However it was too little to late as the Vikings took the frame 25-14.
 
"That second set we had a melt down passing wise," Andaya said. "Western served well and we did not respond in other elements of the game.  We cleaned things up well after that, it could have been a turning point in the match but our confidence never failed."
 
Set three was played close by each team and the Wildcats gained a 12-9 lead off a kill by Hanses.
 
And attack error by Firethorne allowed the Vikings to tie the match at 18-18, but CWU regained a 21-18 lead off a kill by both Firethorne and Quirk and a WWU error. And the Wildcats finished off the set with a block by Fry and Firethorne.
 
A tight fourth set saw the Wildcats take a 20-16 lead off a pair of kills by Jones and a thunderous strike by Weg.  Fry and Quirk helped finish off the set with back-to-back kills as the Wildcats took the set and the match.
 
Up next the Wildcats come home after a perfect four-game road trip to host Concordia University and Western Oregon on Oct. 29 and 31, respectively.  Both games are slated for a 7:00 p.m. start.