KIRKLAND – Eleventh-ranked Corban held off a determined Northwest squad in the Eagles home volleyball opener Friday, 3-1 (25-19, 28-26, 20-25, 25-16).
 
After dropping the opening set, the Eagles had a 15-7 lead in the second set before the Warriors fought back to take a 24-23 lead.
 
The Eagles bounced back in the third set, but Corban came on strong late in the fourth for the win.
 
"It's hard to win on the road in this conference, so you have to give Corban a lot of credit," reflected NU Head Coach Steven Bain. "I liked what I saw from our women in the third set. The bottom line is that you have to put together three good sets. We're a good team, and we're making progress; we're just not seeing the results."
 
Tatiana Ensz had 11 kills with Abi Broussard logging nine.
 
"I thought Tatiana stepped up," Bain said. "We had some good individual efforts tonight."
 
Ana Saelens had 14 assists, and Courteney Carr added 13. The Eagles had nine aces in the match with Saelens getting four.
 
NU's defense produced 11 blocks, with Kylie Szczepanski knocking down a solo and six assisted blocks to lead the front line. Cristina Hegarty had 17 digs.
 
Saelens strung together four aces in a 9-1 NU run to establish a 15-7 lead in the second set. The Eagles took a 23-19 lead before Corban ran off five unanswered points for a 24-23 lead. Szczepanski had a kill and shared a block with Sarah Howlett to tie the set at 26-26, but back-to-back kills by the Warriors ended the donnybrook.
 
The Eagles got off the deck for a win in the third set, using a 7-1 run to take an 11-8 lead. Broussard had a kill and a block to highlight the run.
 
Corban rallied to take an 18-17 edge, but Broussard and Keann White came up with kills, and Szczepanski and Howlett had a shared block in a 4-0 spree to gain a 21-18 lead.
 
Szczepanski and Broussard had kills in a set-ending 3-0 run.
 
The final set saw Corban fall behind early, only to use runs of five and six points to wrest control from the Eagles.
 
Now 2-1 in the Cascade Collegiate Conference and 4-5 overall, the Eagles host Northwest Christian at 5 p.m. on Saturday.