The Wildcats chased home the Whitman Missionaries in a final score of 3-1.The set scores were 25-23, 25-20, 26-24 and 25-16.

The ’Cats battled hard Saturday night, going to a fourth set after winning the first two but losing in the third.

“It feels so good to win and I know I can speak on behalf of my team that we all needed that win,” Gaza said.

The first set had 13 kills, three errors, 32 total attempts and a hitting percentage of .312. The second set held a hitting percentage of .229 made of 13 kills, five errors and 35 total attempts.

Molly McTaggart, ’17, led the attack with 11 kills, 24 total attempts and a hitting percentage of .292.

Darian Stedman, ’19, came in second with nine kills and 32 total attempts.

Taylor Petersen, ’19, closely follows with eight kills and 22 total attempts, then Eryka Keoho, ‘19, with six kills and 32 total attempts, and Mackenzie Courtney, ’20, with five kills and 14 total attempts.

The Wildcats ended the evening with 49 kills, only 24 errors, 153 total attempts and a hitting percentage of .163.

All of the kills would not be possible without Jamie Talbo, ’18, coming in with 20 assists and Casie Gaza, ’17, closely follows with 18 assists. There was a total of 45 assists at the end of the night.

McTaggart on Friday night versus Saturdays match said, “We played as a team and spread the ball amongst our hitters better. We also served tougher and made less errors.”

The third set, which went to the Missionaries had 11 kills, 10 errors, 45 total attempts and a hitting percentage of .022.

The Wildcats had a tough set, constantly going back and forth as point leaders. In the end, the match was tied 25-25, when the Missionaries came through with match point.

When asked what her favorite point of the game, Gaza said, “My favorite point is always when match point falls because it’s the end of the game and we don’t have to stress about any more points or what the other team is going to do.”

On Saturdays match, Gaza added, “I think our team had some really good rallies and we served really tough.”

The Wildcats had 13 service aces and only one service error.

The ’Cats defense was led by Kayla Magbaleta, ’19, with 19 assists, Talbo with 12 assists and closely followed by Stedman, with 10 assists. The evening ended with 71 total assists for the Wildcats.

The fourth set had 12 kills, six errors, 41 total attempts and a hitting percentage of .146.

The team ended the night with a total nine blocks.

The Wildcats improve to 6-4 overall, 1-3 in Northwest Conference play.

Next up, the volleyball team looks to bounce back on the road at 7 p.m. on Saturday against Lewis and Clark in Portland and at 5 p.m. on Sunday against Pacific University in Forest Grove.