Oct. 6, 2007

Lutes’ Winning Streak Reaches 10 Against Pacific

Box Score

Beth Hanna - 21 kills

PARKLAND, Wash – Pacific Lutheran continues to dominate the volleyball court, winning its 10th straight match Saturday in Olson Auditorium.

The Lutes stretched their record in Northwest Conference play to 8-0 with a 3-0 sweep of the Pacific Boxers, 30-24, 30-26, 30-18. In those eight conference wins, the Lutes have won 24 of 25 games played. Since a 3-2 loss to SUNY Cortland on September 8, PLU has won an incredible 30 of its past 31 games.

Pacific led by two early in each of the first two games. After falling one behind the Boxers in the first game at 9-10, the Lutes went on a 7-0 run to pull away, and the Boxers never came within four points of the Lutes the rest of the game. In the second game, the Lutes jumped out to an early 10-6 lead before allowing the Boxers to pull ahead off a 6-0 run of their own. It remained very tight until the Lutes finally pulled a couple points ahead for good at 21-19 before finishing off the 30-26 win. Freshman outside hitter Beth Hanna led the Lutes with 16 kills in the first two games.

The third game featured four runs of at least three straight points for the Lutes, while the Boxers only managed one such run at the very end of the game. After pulling ahead by eight at 18-10, PLU coasted to the 30-18 match-deciding victory.

Senior setter Gina Di Maggio led the Lutes with 37 assists, while senior Libero Megan Kosel’s 12 digs were also tops on the team. Hanna finished with 21 kills on a .366 attack percentage and senior outside hitter Stacie Matz contributed 11 kills and seven digs. The Lutes finished the match with a .288 attack percentage while holding the Boxers to.072.

In each of the past nine matches, Hanna has contributed at least 15 kills, an average of 5.8 kills per game. During that same stretch, Di Maggio has averaged almost 13.3 assists per game.

The Lutes will play a non-conference match against St. Martin’s at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 9, in Olson Auditorium before traveling to Oregon next weekend to face conference rivals Willamette and Lewis & Clark.

- PLU -