Box Score EUGENE, Ore. – Northwest University and Northwest Christian battled in a five set match for over two hours with NCU coming out on top 3-2 (25-23, 23-25, 18-25, 25-19, 16-14) and a Cascade Conference victory this afternoon in the Morse Events Center.

The two teams would play through 7 ties in the first set with NCU winning the final two points on a Chelsea McGowan kill and a service ace by Haley Damian to win the set.

Set two would see Northwest U take an early 10-6 lead after an Amanda Waterman service ace and an attack error by NCU. The Eagles would lead the remainder of the way. NCU would make it close, 24-23, after an NU error, but give the set to NU with an attack error to tie the match at 1-1.

The Eagles would again break out to an early 16-7 lead in the third set and would lead the entire way to take a 2-1 lead in the match. Two NCU kills would close the gap to 23-18, but the Beacons would commit two straight miscues as the Eagles would get the set win.

Northwest Christian would regain their composure in the fourth set and a kill by Kayla Ping and error by NU would give them a 16-9 lead. The Beacons would hold on to a 4-5 point lead the rest of the set to send the match into a fifth and deciding set.

In the fifth set, NCU would take a 10-7 lead, but Northwest U would battle back to tie the set at 10-10 after a Hannah Hanson service ace. It looked as though NU might wrap up the set leading 14-13, but the Beacons would tie the set at 14-all with a Chelsea McGowan kill. A service ace by Sydney Rothenbush and an attack error by the Eagles would give the tiebreaker and the match to Northwest Christian, 16-14.

Hannah Hanson led Northwest (9-9, 2-5 CCC) with 15 kills and a .312 hitting average. Brooke Riddle would lead the Eagles with 25 kills and Leia Roy would score a match high with 32 defensive digs for the contest. Amanda Waterman added 11 kills, Morgan Pilon had 18 assists and Olivia VanDlac contributed 16 digs.

Kayla Ping came up with 23 kills and 15 digs to lead Northwest Christian (4-7, 2-6 CCC) while teammate Alyssa Dorr had a match high 50 assists along with 21 digs. Sydney Rothenbush added 28 digs and Haley Damian had 14 digs for the Beacons.

"First, we have to give credit to Northwest Christian," stated Steven Bain, NU head coach. "They made some changes to their line-up that worked well for them and at the end of the day, they simply played better when the match was on the line. Winning volleyball is simply an accumulation of good plays over time, not great ones, just good ones, and we didn't make enough of them today."