Thanks to Angelina Azzo for the pictures
The Vikings women's volleyball team cleaned up over the weekend at the Oregon Trail Classic hosted by Pacific University, going 3-0, 3-0, 3-1, and 3-0 across 4 games between Friday and Saturday.
North Park first faced off with the Lewis and Clarke College Pioneers, who tested the Vikings with a tightly contested first set to open up the weekend. Neither team established much of a lead as both eventually fought their way to 24 points, at which point Rhianna Huebner broke the tie with a kill to gain back service. Teiya Alagar promptly wrapped things up with an ace to give the Vikings a 26-24 victory, starting a streak of seven straight sets won. North Park won the next two by scores of 25-15 and 25-20, recording 11 aces across the match as a whole—4 of which were courtesy of Jenna Jones.
The second of four games saw the Vikings take on George Fox University, again winning all three sets with scores of 25-22, 29-27, and 25-22. It looked as though North Park wouldn't be able to secure the Friday sweep after going down 0-7 immediately in Set 2, but a series of short runs slowly but surely chipped away at the lead and the Vikings finally were able even the score at 24 for the first time since 0-0. At 26-25, they established a lead that wouldn't be relinquished. Set 3 again started with the Vikings down early at a score of 5-11. The slow and steady approach was foregone this time as Adriana Rodriguez, Katy Chess, Christina Gatta, and Carolina Aviles all stepped up with huge service runs to secure victory for the Vikings by way of another sweep.Â
The hosting Pacific Boxers represented the Vikings first Saturday opponent, and they also represented the Vikings lone dropped set of the weekend, taking Set 2 by a score of 20-25. North Park bounced back to take the third and fourth sets though, maintaining their perfect tournament record and setting themselves up to finish the West Coast trip at an undefeated 4-0 clip. The Vikings pounced on that opportunity, handling the Willamette Bearcats by scores of 25-23, 27-25, and 25-20. Sets 1 and 2 were back-and forth affairs that stayed competitive through the final point, but the Vikings left their final mark in Oregon with a dominant 3rd set win that was controlled from start to finish.Â
The four games out West bring the Vikings to 7-2 on the 2022 season, with one more non-conference game against Benedictine on September 13th before CCIW play begins on the 17th against Carthage.Â