ELLENSBURG, Wash. (Sept. 29) -- The Central Washington University women's volleyball team (13-2, 7-1) played host to the Seattle Pacific University Falcons (7-8, 5-3) on a busy Saturday afternoon for Great Northwest Athletic Conference match.  The Wildcats took the match 3-1 (25-16, 28-26, 19-25, 25-13).

"We competed and found a way to grind out a tough match," CWU Head Coach Mario Andaya said.  "Seattle Pacific is a good blocking team and forced us into some bad moments, but we found a way to get the upper hand at the end.  Maddy [Weg] had a great night and stepping up offensively for us."
 
The Wildcats came out strong and took the first set at a commanding 25-16 tally.
 
Wildcat senior Madison Weg, played a big role in the first set. With the two teams going back and forth, Weg had a key block to start a Central run putting some separation and building their lead. As fitting as it may seem, Weg put the explanation mark on the first set with a kill to help the Wildcats take set one.
 
Central wasted no time in set number two jumping out to a 4-0 lead with help from, of course, Weg. She had another block at the net, which was followed by a SPU timeout.
 
Seattle Pacific came out of the timeout with some energy and fought back to make it a 16-12 game. Even with some great defense from Falcons, the Wildcat attack was too much for Seattle Pacific and the Wildcats held on to take the second set 28-26.
 
Set number three took a different turn for the Cats as SPU jumped out to an early 10-6 lead. With the help of some good defense at the net from Falcon Senior Shaun Crespi, the Falcons increased their lead to 18-12. Following a couple mis-hits from the Wildcats, Andaya decided it was time to call timeout and talk to his team to shut down the Falcons scoring.
 
Following the timeout, the Wildcats came out and scored six of the next seven points to cut down the Falcons lead to 22-18. However, it just wasn't quite enough as Seattle Pacific took the third set at a final score of 25-19.
 
With a couple of great blocks from the Wildcat front line and some great digs in the back, Central jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in set number four. After a couple of great rallies, the Falcons fought back to tie the game at seven.
 
The fourth set continued to go back and forth between the two teams, each of which never got a lead of more than a single point. With the help of senior left-handed hitter Hailey Gaines, the Falcons attack continued to give the Wildcat defense problems.
 
With the score tight at 14-13 the Falcons began to pull away after some great defense and tough digs to stretch the lead to 16-13. At this point, Coach Andaya felt the need to talk over some game strategy with his Wildcats.
 
Sophomore Makala Swart and Senior Sarah Joffs came out of the timeout with two quick kills to cut down the Falcon lead to 17-16.
 
Yet again the Falcons answered right back with some kills of their own. Falcon Junior, Nicole Tchabnov answered right back with three of her own kills to increase their lead to 20-16. With the help of some Falcon mistakes, the Wildcats blocked their way back to take a 22-20 lead thanks to Weg and Webb in the middle.
 
The Central Wildcats ended up stealing away game four 25 to 23, to come out with a hard-fought conference win to improve their record to 7-1 in GNAC play.
 
The Wildcat are back in action on Tuesday (Oct. 2) as they travel to Nampa, Idaho for a GNAC match against Northwest Nazarene University.