Zoë Strickland | Managing Editor

Wolves’ volleyball headed to Portland on Oct. 3 to face off against Concordia University. After a series of tight sets, the final score read 0-3, with the Wolves’ giving up the win.

Junior Mariella Vandenkooy scored the most kills for Western, tallying up 19.

Throughout the first set, Concordia held a consistent lead above Western. The Wolves finally began to redeem themselves with a series of kills and attack errors, but not before Concordia beat them to the 25. The final score read 21-25.

The team kicked it into gear for the second set, leading the way for the majority of the remaining time. Their steady lead was halted with repeated kills from Concordia sophomore Jessica Wheeler and Concordia senior Colby Barnette. The repeated attack led the Wolves to a close second set at 24-26.

The third set was a slow-build in favor of Concordia; kills and errors were the name of the game. The final score was 17-25, rounding out a loss for the Wolves.

The team headed back home to play the Montana State Billings on Oct. 7.

After losing to Concordia, the Wolves made a comeback with a 3-0 win against the Billings.

Vandenkooy was the kill leader in this game, as well, racking up 20.

Vandenkooy started the Wolves off with a kill at the top of the game. This put the Wolves on a path of steady points ahead of the Billings. The end of the first ended with a gutting 25-9 in favor of Western.

The Billings made the first kill of the second set, but Western came back with eight consecutive points. The rest of the set played out in a similar way; Montana State getting a kill in, followed by Western coming in and scoring multiple consecutive points.

The third set mimicked the one before it, with both the second and third sets ending 25-18.

This win makes Western 2-6 in GNAC. Their only other win of the season so far was against Saint Martin’s in September.

The Wolves face two Alaska teams at home this week; University of Alaska on Oct. 12 and University of Alaska Anchorage on Oct. 14.

Contact the author at journalmanaging@wou.edu