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Sept. 4, 2009

Box Score

PORTLAND, Ore. - The Gonzaga University women's volleyball team came out on fire in its opening match of the Northwest Challenge but could not hold on to its momentum as it dropped a 3-1 decision to Portland State University at the Stott Center on the campus of PSU. The Bulldogs, who dropped to 1-3 with the setback, opened the match with a 25-22 victory, but the Vikings (1-3) bounced back and won the next three 25-17, 28-26, 25-15 to earn the victory.

It was the third set that changed the course of the match for Gonzaga. After splitting the first two, Portland State seemed in the driver's seat of the third set jumping out to a 17-12 advantage. The Bulldogs refocused though and used a 9-3 rally to take the lead at 21-20 on back-to-back kills by freshman Jessie Genger. A kill by the Viks Whitney Phillips knotted the set up at 21 apiece and then things got interesting. Junior Caitlin Cozad seemed to hit a perfect ball just inside the baseline but the linesman called the ball out which allowed PSU to take the one point lead. Another questionable call, this time a ball handling error by Zag setter Denise Van de Mortel, pushed the Vikings lead to two at 23-21. A timeout by GU head coach Dave Gantt settled the Bulldog players down as they forced Portland State into two straight attacking errors. After each team had set point, it was PSU who finally broke away with Marja Vojnovic tallying back-to-back kills to give the Vikings the 28-26 victory.

Gonzaga could not recover after the tough third set loss as it only had seven kills on 26 total attempts in the fourth and final set.

The Bulldogs were led by senior Layne Brosky and sophomore Kaprina Goodwin who finished with 12 and 10 kills, respectively. Goodwin also added a team-high three blocks.

The Vikings held a huge 67-47 lead in kills and a 55-49 edge in digs.

Gonzaga will close out the Northwest Challenge on Saturday with two matches. The Bulldogs will face third-ranked University of Washington at 10 a.m. and Boise State University at 5 p.m. The Huskies defeated Boise State 3-0 in their opening match of the tournament.