PORTLAND, Ore. – Losing the first six sets in Northwest Conference play, the Linfield Wildcats won the first set on Friday night, before falling in four to the Lewis & Clark Pioneers.
 
The win helps the Pioneers improve to 6-5 and 2-1 in conference. For the Wildcats, they fall to 4-11 and 0-3 in conference with a date against Pacific Lutheran, a team that has appeared in the AVCA poll, looming.
 
Neither team was able to get any advantage to start the match, as the Pioneers had a 10-9 lead early in the first.
 
Being down 14-12 at a timeout, the Wildcats scored seven of the next 11 to bounce back into the set.
 
Linfield went on to take a 22-19 lead in the first thanks to two errors from Lewis & Clark and closed out the first set, 25-22 on an assisted block by Raelynn Hammock and Lori Cimmiyotti.
 
The Pioneers had a huge start to the second set, leading 9-4, forcing the Wildcats to call a timeout.
 
Lewis & Clark dominated the second set and closed it out 25-18 on a service error by Linfield to tie the match.
 
The Wildcats had the early advantage in the third set, leading 9-6 thanks to early kills by Hammock and Hannah Waterman.
 
Waterman had five kills and seven total blocks in the match.
 
The Pioneers got back in the set with an 8-2 run to lead 14-11 forcing the Wildcats to talk things over.
 
Lewis & Clark closed out the set on a 11-5 run following the timeout break the dread-lock in the match, 25-17.
 
Looking to close out the match, the Pioneers jumped to 6-1 lead in the fourth forcing the Wildcats to call an early timeout.
 
Linfield was never able to get back into the match after winning the first set and fell 25-10 in the fourth set to fall to 0-3 in conference play.
 
The Wildcats had nine total blocks compared to the Pioneers seven, who outhit the Wildcats 15 percent to six percent.
 
Another match, another double digit digs match for Maya Nakasone, who has helped Linfield have most digs in the conference with 892 as a team.
 
Linfield now leads the all-time head to head 41-12, losing the last three against Lewis & Clark.
 
UP NEXT
Linfield returns home to face Pacific Lutheran, who received votes in this week's AVCA poll on Saturday night at 6 p.m.