ELLENSBURG, Wash. -- Tenth-ranked Western Washington had three players with double-figure kills and libero Samantha Hutchinson had a match-high 33 digs as the Vikings defeated Central Washington 25-23, 24-18, 14-25, 25-16, in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference match on Thursday at Nicholson Pavilion.
The Vikings improved to 16-3 overall and remained second in the GNAC standings at 9-2 behind Alaska-Anchorage, which is 10-2 following a sweep at St. Martin's.
Central, which had a five-match winning streak snapped, fell to 11-9 overall and 7-5 in league action. WWU also ended a two-match losing streak at Ellensburg. Earlier this season, the Vikings swept Central at Bellingham.
"This was a nice way to start this road trip and a nice to start it off the way that we played," WWU head coach Diane Flick said.
"Central is really a good team that can attack you from many different angles and we did a pretty good job of being able to see what's going on across the net and reacting to it, which is something we've been working on."
WWU's Kayla Erickson had a match-high 13 kills and Kelsey Moore and Rachel Roeder each had 12.
Setter Taylor Dillard added a match-high 45 assists and 11 digs for the Vikings.
After 17 ties and four lead changes in Game 1, WWU trailed 23-21, but came back to score four consecutive points for the win. The Vikings went out to a 15-8 lead in Game 2 and after Central closed to within four, scored four of the next five points to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
In Game 3, WWU fell behind early, got back to within 11-10 after four consecutive points, but were outscored 14-4 as Central averted the sweep.
WWU dominated Game 4 in getting the victory, with Roeder having three consecutive kills during one stretch.
No. 4 BYU-Hawaii 3, Dominican (Calif.) 0
LAIE, Hawaii -- Fourth-ranked BYU-Hawaii team took down Dominican (Calif.) in three sets 25-15, 25-15, 25-19 on Thursday night.
BYU-Hawaii (19-1, 14-1) was able to pull away in each set down the stretch en route to its 13th win in a row. Shih Ting (Stella) Chen posted 16 kills and 14 digs while Erh Fang (Ariel) Hsu punched in seven kills, Huafa Saulala and Ying Chun (Michelle) Chen) added six kills apiece.
The first set was controlled by the Seasiders. An early 7-1 lead put the home team in the driver's seat early. The Penguins made a comeback to trim the lead to 11-9 but BYU-Hawaii answered right back to push the lead back to 19-12 and then cruised to a 25-15 win.
The Seasiders and Dominican were in a close battle in the second set with the Penguins holding an 8-7 lead at the start. Tied 11-11, Stella Chen strung together three consecutive kills to make it 14-11 and BYU-Hawaii never looked back. The Seasiders ran away with it down the stretch for a 25-15 victory in the second set.
Dominican wasn't going away quietly, putting up a fight in the third set. BYU-Hawaii and the Penguins sat in a 15-15 tie before the Seasiders were able to start to pull away. Back-to-back kills from Michelle Chen gave the home team some separation and the Seasiders put Dominican away with a 25-19 win to take the match 3-0.
