COLLEGE PLACE, Wash. — Walla Walla trailed two sets to one and were down 13-3 in the fifth set, but battled back every time to upset No. 12 The College of Idaho in a Cascade Conference Women's Volleyball match on Friday.
The Wolves refused to give in and won 15-25, 25-21, 15-25, 25-20, 19-17 in an epic battle with the Yotes.

With the victory, Walla Walla improved to 7-3 overall and 5-2 in CCC play. College of Idaho dropped to 9-5 on the season and 3-4 in conference action.

The Yotes had full control of the first set and did not trail after the early points gave WWU a 2-1 lead. CI jumped out to a 14-10 advantage. After back-to-back points by the Wolves, College of Idaho won 11 of the next 14 points to close out a dominant opening frame.

The two teams went back and forth in the second set and neither squad was able to push a lead to more than two points until an attack error gave Walla Walla a 19-16 bump. The Wolves pushed the advantage to 23-18 and after holding off a late Yote rally, won the second set.

College of Idaho won the first four points and 15 of the first 21 of the third set and never looked back in another strong set by the No. 12 team in the NAIA.

In the fourth set it was Walla Walla who got into a rhythm. Tied at 9-9, Natalia Jimenez smashed home a kill and started an 8-0 run for the home team. The lead ballooned to 21-11, but it was the Yotes who had the pin and had a 7-0 run of their own in an attempt to deflate the upset bid. Sahara Browning and Yaimaris Garcia ended the streak with back-to-back kills and Myckalya Shaver sent the match to a fifth set with a kill of her own.

It looked like the rally was going to come up short when the visitors exploded out of the gate in the fifth set. The Yotes led 4-0, 6-2 and then 13-3 before a service error allowed the Wolves a chance to breathe.

Garcia had three straight kills, Browning had an ace and the Yotes had four straight errors and Walla Walla trailed by just one point. Brooke Garman gave College of Idaho match point with a kill. The Wolves would not be denied with two kills by Paula Flores sandwiched around a kill by Garcia. The Yotes survived a match point as well with a kill by Garman and earned a match point of their own with a kill by Shaynee McWilliams. Flores saved that match-closing chance with a kill and four points later put the game on ice with an ace to send the home crowd happy.

It was a complete team effort for the Wolves as four different players had at least seven kills, and no single player had more than 11. It was junior Browning who led the team with those 11 kills. Flores had nine kills, Garcia added eight and Jimenez finished with seven kills.

Olivia Cheek had 18 assists and nine digs. Browning led the Wolves with 16 digs and Garcia and Flores each had three aces in the victory.

Every point was a battle and it showed with the low hitting percentages. The Yotes had two sets with a hit percentage in the negatives and finished with a team percentage of .088, Walla Walla finished at .079.

Garman led College of Idaho with 13 kills, Cierra Bohrn and Abigail Flerchinger had 12 apiece. McWilliams had 42 assists for the Yotes.

UP NEXT

Walla Walla will host No. 1 Eastern Oregon in a game that was moved up 30 minutes to 8:30 p.m. on Saturday.

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