Seattle Pacific University’s women’s volleyball team came out swinging this week on the road against Saint Martins and Montana State University Billings.
The Falcons beat the Saints in a three-set match, but were not so lucky in their match against the Yellowjackets, losing in a close five-set match. The loss ended a three-game win streak for the Falcons.
The Falcons’ first game of the week, on Oct. 16, was against Saint Martin’s University. In a quick three sets SPU beat the Saints 25-15, 25-16 and 25-21.
In this game, junior Gabby Oddo lead the team in kills with 10, followed by junior Jaden Hooker with nine kills. Senior Symone Tran snuck in with a total of 34 assist.
Oddo not only led the team in kills against SMU, but she also leads in kills for the entire season, with 270 so far, which puts her 73 kills above the second closest kill leader on the team.
Following the win at Saint Martin’s, the Falcons travelled to MSU Billings on Oct. 20.
Unlike their last three games, this match put the Falcons to the test. In a strong back and forth five sets, SPU fell just short of another win.
With away games, head coach Abby Wright expressed how they just try to take each game one at a time and treat it like any other week.
“The more you can treat each day like the most important day of the season, the results fall where they will, and you can trust that you are doing the process right.”
The scores were 24-26, 25-22, 20-25, 25-18, and 6-15. The Yellowjackets took the first set, but SPU answered by taking the second set. The third set went to MSU Billings, but SPU came back to take the fourth.
The Falcons put up a fight throughout the entire game, Oddo in particular earned 23 more kills.
In the end, the game went to a fifth set, but ultimately the Yellowjackets took the set, sealing the win.
Despite the lost against MSU Billings, the win against Saint Martin’s pushed the Falcons from the No. 6 seed to No. 5 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
Wright discussed her hopes for this week’s game by talking about the importance of teamwork and game strategy.
“If we can serve and pass well, we will always put ourselves in a good position to play well no matter who the opponent is,” Wright said.
The team has a change of scenery as well for their next couple of games, they play both their up-and-coming Thursday and Saturday game at home, playing against Central Washington University on Thursday, Oct. 25, and Northwest Nazarene on Saturday, Oct. 27
