PORTLAND, Ore. — Down two sets to Portland on the road in West Coast Conference play, Gonzaga Volleyball mounted a furious comeback as the Bulldogs (6-18, 2-11 WCC) got their second conference win in five sets (18-25, 19-25, 25-23, 27-25, 15-10) over the Pilots (9-14, 2-10) Saturday at the Chiles Center.
Down 24-21 in the fourth, GU stayed alive with a late surge to tie things up at two sets apiece before putting up 10 kills in a dominant fifth. Following the Zags' 3-2 win over Pepperdine at home on Oct. 22, both of GU's conference wins have come with reverse sweeps after falling behind by two sets.
"In sets one and two, we played at an uncharacteristically high error rate," said GU Head Coach Katie Wilson. "In set three, we settled down and played very clean volleyball. That carried over into sets four and five. I'm very proud of how we maintained our composure."
Zoe Thiros led a balanced attack from GU with 17 kills and 11 digs for her first double-double of the season, with Alyssa Hughes and Kennedy Croft (10 kills each) leading five other Zags who recorded at least two. McKenna Marshall added nine kills of her own on team-high .450 hitting.
Alisa Kim (14 digs) and Keau Kamake'eaina (12 digs) led GU on defense, with Kamake'eaina producing 38 of the Zags' 44 assists. GU served up 10 aces in the winning effort, with Dani Batenhorst supplying four and Hughes adding two.
The Action
The Pilots were dominant in sets one and two, connecting on 30 kills to the Zags' 17 in the process while holding GU to .119 hitting in set one and .080 in set two.
But the Bulldogs held firm while facing a sweep in set three, resisting multiple pushes from the Pilots while holding them to their lowest hitting percentage of the game so far. GU connected on four service aces in the process to close out the set despite 11 ties and seven lead changes, scoring six of the last nine points and sealing the deal with Hughes' fourth kill of the day, 25-23.
A 3-0 run in the fourth with consecutive kills from Ehler, Croft and Marshall put GU up 6-3 to keep the momentum rolling, but another back-and-forth battle produced four lead changes and 17 ties with the Zags connecting on 20 kills — the most in a single set so far this season. After Portland closed the gap with a 4-1 run to tie it at 8-8, neither team led by more than a point until a 3-0 Portland run capped by a service ace from Grace Zilbert forced GU into a timeout at 18-16. After falling behind by as much as three, a 3-0 swing at match point kept GU alive at 24-all, with both teams trading points until back-to-back kills from Thiros won the Zags' highest-scoring set of the year and tied things up at two sets apiece, 27-25.
A decisive fifth was just as back-and-forth as the prior two sets until back-to-back kills from Hughes gave the Zags some breathing room at 11-9 and forced the Pilots into a timeout. After a kill in response from UP, the Bulldogs ripped off a 4-0 run to put the finishing touches on yet another epic comeback.
Up Next
The Bulldogs return home to play host to Santa Clara Thursday at 4 p.m., with Senior Night on Saturday vs. San Francisco at noon. Live stats and streaming options will be available via GoZags.com. Follow @ZagVolleyball on IG and Twitter for updates and more.
