Olympia, Wash. | A tough opening weekend of conference matches for the Warner Pacific University Women's Volleyball team ended Saturday night with a straight set loss to The Evergreen State University Geoducks (25-13, 25-22, 25-21) to drop to 0-4 overall, and 0-2 in conference play.

After an ugly first set that fell apart for the Knights at about the midway point of scoring (when Evergreen strung together 11 straight points), the Knights focused back up and turned their attention towards the second set. Warner Pacific jumped out to a 5-0 lead and battled all the way to a 21-21 score, before the Geoducks were able to pull together to eke out the 25-22 set two win.

Set three went fairly similar to set two, where the Knights found themselves in it down the final stretch, but just couldn't get to that coveted 25 points to force a fourth set. Freshman libero Sabah Mohammady had two beautifully placed service aces late in the third set to force the Geoducks into calling a timeout, but that was exactly what they needed to game plan the remaining two points they needed to put this game to an end.

Knights setter Matalasi Laban had her second double-double of the season tonight featuring 15 assists and 10 digs. Senior outside hitter Grace Buchanan provided 13 kills and 2 solo blocks towards Warner Pacific's point total, while nearly having a double-double of her own with 9 digs. Collectively, the Knights had 8 service aces spread out over the starting rotation.

For the Geoducks, junior outside hitter Zoe Shaw also had a double-double of 13 kills and 14 digs, while senior libero Sage Burgmeier held down Evergreen's defense with 17 digs in tonight's contest.

The Warner Pacific University Knights will have an extended weekend to prepare for a road non-conference contest this Tuesday in McMinnville, Ore. against NCAA DIII Linfield University at 7pm PST.