ELLENSBURG, Wash.- Sophomore Shelby Mauritson recorded a career-high 18 kills to help the Central Washington University volleyball team knock off another Great Northwest Athletic Conference foe with a 3-0 (25-20, 28-26, 25-22) sweep of Western Oregon University Thursday night at Nicholson Pavilion.
 
The Wildcats (16-11, 12-7) revenged their 2-3 road loss against the Wolves (10-15, 7-11) earlier this season.
 
"I think we are different team," CWU Head Coach Mario Andaya said. "We talked about how we've grown since the last time we faced them and we have cleaned up some stuff since September. We wanted to come out and show our identity and I thought we did that, especially on offense. We had a good rhythm offensively and we were just more efficient than the last time we played them."
 
Mauritson did it all in the first set, registering five kills, six digs and a hitting percentage of 0.500 to help lead the Wildcats to a 25-20 win. The Wildcats hit just 0.267 in the frame, but Central capitalized on several chances to record 19 total kills and Western Oregon tallied two service errors to make up the difference.
 
The second set featured four even scores within the first ten points. A couple kills by Mauritson, followed by a kill from Jordan Deming allowed the Wildcats to claim a 9-5 advantage. The Wolves would keep the set close, closing the gap to 15-14 behind blocks from Amanda Short and Paige Orth. A back-and-forth battle ensued for the remainder of stanza with the Wolves evening the score at 23-23. Extra points were required to decide the set victor, with a kill from Mauritson sealing the 28-26 set victory for the Wildcats.
 
Kiah Jones put down a kill and Sabrina Wheelhouse and Jordan Deming added a block to give CWU a 14-13 lead midway into the third set, but Western Oregon countered with an 6-2 run to go up 19-16. Central battled its way back though and following back-to-back attack errors by the Wolves the Wildcats evened the score at 20-20. WOU and CWU traded points to a 22-22 tie, but Central closed out the set with a block from Wheelhouse and Jones to take the frame 25-22 and a 3-0 match victory.
 
Mauritson paced Central with a career-high 18 kills on a 0.237 hitting efficiency and added seven digs and a block. Wheelhouse registered 10 kills and a team-high three blocks.
 
"Shelby is one of the individuals on our team that has been maturing as a player," Andaya said. "When she puts her mind to it, she is one of the best players on the floor because she does a lot. Her performance tonight is just indicative of what she has been doing in practice."
Western Oregon tallied more blocks (9-5) in the match, but the Wildcats led in virtually every other statistic. CWU came up big on the offensive side of the net, registering a total of 53 kills and out-hit the Wolves 0.206 to 0.154.
 
CWU collected more digs on the evening, 63-56, behind Kyla Morgan's team-high 22 digs. The Wildcats out set the Wolves, 50-36, with Gabrielle Aihara and Niki Cook combining to record 45 assists.  
 
The Wildcats will return to Nicholson Pavilion on Saturday (Nov. 19) to play Concordia University at 7 p.m.
 
-CWU-