Central’s women’s volleyball team, in a three-way tie for second place in the GNAC, is heading west for important road games facing Simon Fraser University (SFU) and conference-leading Western Washington University (WWU).

The women enter the road trip 8-2 in GNAC play, two games behind WWU 10-0. They’ll have a chance to close in on WWU with wins on Thursday, Oct. 22 against SFU and Saturday, Oct. 24 against WWU.  

“With the two matches coming up on the road, we’re gonna need all the firepower we have,” head coach Mario Andaya said.

Central dropped their home meeting with WWU in a close five-set match Sept. 24.  The teams traded set victories with WWU, edging Central 16-14 in the final set.

Sophomore middle blocker Sabrina Wheelhouse said the team will need to finish stronger in the next match-up.

In the prior meeting, senior outside hitter Linden Firethorne led the team with 21 digs and 17 kills. Wheelhouse added 11 kills and a team high of 10 blocks.

The rematch will feature three of the GNAC’s top-four leaders in blocks per set. Central’s senior middle blocker Kaitlin Quirk leads the conference and Wheelhouse is fourth.  

WWU’s redshirt freshman middle blocker Kayleigh Harper is second in the conference.

Central leads all of NCAA Division II with 2.9 blocks per set.

Andaya attributed the success in the block game to the team’s height, physicality, athleticism and mental ability to stick to their assignments.

Quirk also credited the team’s ability to communicate on the floor.

Central has not beaten WWU on the road since 2005, but Central’s team, made up almost entirely a juniors and seniors, is up to the challenge.

“It helps that we’ve all been in these big situations,” Quirk said.

Central must take down SFU before their focus solely switches to WWU.

In their previous match, Central pulled out a comeback win in the fifth set. After trailing 2-1, Central rallied to win the final two sets 25-15 and 15-12.

SFU enters the contest 5-5 in conference, needing to string together some wins for any hope of a conference title.

Central has beaten SFU the last two times they have met, both home games for Central.

A pair of wins this weekend could also boost Central into the American Volleyball Coaches Association Top-25 poll.

Andaya said that both teams Central faces bring strong pressure defensively and they’ll need to apply that pressure back on offense.

Central won back-to-back road games against Saint Martin’s University and Seattle Pacific University last week. The women didn’t drop a single set, winning both matches 3-0.

“We did some good things offensively [last] week that we need to carry over,” Andaya said.