Junior middle hitter Marguerite Spaethling and senior opposite hitter Aria Dudley combined for 27 kills to lead the second-ranked Colorado College volleyball team to a 17-25, 25-18, 25-21, 25-19 victory over Pacific University in the 2018 Spike It Up Classic on Friday night at Reid Arena.
 
Spaethling finished with a match-high 16 kills on 28 attacks and finished with a .500 hitting percentage. Dudley posted 11 kills on 20 attacks and hit .300 as the Tigers improved to 6-0 with the come-from-behind win.
 
The Boxers were on fire during the first set when they hit .394, the best by an opponent against CC this season. Morgan Mendicino put down seven of her 11 kills in the set that Pacific closed out with a 7-1 run.
 
Freshman outside hitter Isabella Vasquez came off the bench to record five of her nine kills in the second set which saw Colorado College grab a commanding 10-2 lead. The Boxers pulled to within 21-17, however the Tigers scored four of the final five points, the last two of which were Vasquez kills.
 
Colorado College carried the momentum into the third set and led 12-4 after a Spaethling kill and 20-12 on a kill by Dudley. Pacific battled back to within 21-19, but senior middle hitter Myca Steffey-Bean had a kill and a block to cap a 4-2 run.
 
The fourth set was almost identical in terms of a red-hot start for CC, which built a commanding 12-4. The Boxers trimmed their deficit to 19-16, only to see Spaethling and junior outside hitter ???? come through with two kills apiece during the deciding 6-3 surge.
 
Junior libero Anna Gurolnick posted a match-high 20 digs to lead the Tiger defense.
 
Mendicino and Milana Ivkovic finished with 11 kills apiece for Pacific, while Karlee Duncan added 10.
 
In the first match of the day, Colorado College had little trouble in the 25-13, 25-13, 25-22 victory over previously unbeaten George Fox University.
 
The Tigers raced to big leads in each of the first two sets and never looked back.
 
In the third set, CC led by as many as four points, but the Bruins fought back to take a 21-20 lead. After a GFU service error, Spaethling factored in every point during a 4-1 run with two blocks, a kill and an assist.
 
Spaethling, the reigning Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Week, was a force on both sides of the net.
 
The junior middle hitter pounded down a match-high 10 kills on just 14 attacks with only one error, good for a season-best .643 hitting percentage.
 
Spaethling also had two solo and two block assists as the Tigers defense held the Bruins to a -.071 hitting percentage.
 
Sophomore outside hitter Alex Nickerson posted career-highs of seven kills and six digs.
 
Gurolnick led the CC defense with a match-high 14 digs, while junior defensive specialist Caitlin Laurence added a career-best nine.
 
Danyle Dupray and Aryah Marlow each had five kills for the Bruins, while Dupray added a team-best 12 digs.
 
Colorado College plays host to Minnesota Morris on Saturday at noon and then finishes the weekend against No. 12 Pacific Lutheran University at 4 p.m.