Whitworth’s regional has NWC flavor

The Whitworth women’s volleyball team will host some familiar foes when the NCAA Division III West Regional tournament begins on Thursday at the Whitworth Fieldhouse.

Fellow Northwest Conference members Puget Sound and Linfield will join the second-seeded and 17th-ranked Pirates.

Whitworth (20-3), which won the NWC with a 15-1 record, will open against No. 7 seed Colorado College (21-8) in the 8:30 p.m. nightcap of the first round. Fourth-seeded Puget Sound (15-5) kicks off the action with a 1 p.m. tilt against fifth-seeded Cal State East Bay (26-10). Sixth-seeded and 11th-ranked Linfield (20-4) follows at 3:30 with a match against No. 3 seed and 14th-ranked California Lutheran (18-2). Top-seeded and seventh-ranked La Verne (20-8) goes up against eighth-seeded Chapman (16-9) at 6.

The winner of the match between Puget Sound and Cal State East Bay will play the winner of the La Verne-Chapman match in the first semifinal on Friday. The winners of the other two openers will play the other semifinal.

The championship match is slated for 7 p.m. on Saturday.

Men’s soccer

The Gonzaga Bulldogs men’s soccer team was five minutes away from doing something it had never done before – then the roof caved in.

The visiting Washington Huskies scored twice in a span of 2 minutes, 18 seconds inside the 85-minute mark to pull out a 3-2 non-conference victory on Sunday afternoon.

Gonzaga (6-8-4) has never beaten Washington (10-6-2) in 19 tries and has only a 2-2 tie in 1999 to show in the series that dates to 1981.

George John’s first goal of the season was the game-winner at 87:23.

George Josten staked the Bulldogs to a 1-0 lead in the 19th minute with his team-leading 11th goal of the season.

Nick Loveless scored 8:56 after the half to pull the Huskies even.

Chris Hoyd’s straightaway shot from 15 yards out slipped past Huskies keeper Chris Eylander and into the right side of the net to give Gonzaga a 2-1 lead in the 71st minute.

Ely Allen pulled the Huskies even again with an unassisted goal at 85:05 and John followed with the heartbreaker.

Men’s basketball

Freshman Jon Brockman scored 18 points and fellow freshman Justin Dentmon added six points and four assists to lead the Washington Huskies to a 114-48 exhibiton victory over visiting Simon Fraser.

Women’s basketball

Julie Page came off the bench to score a game-high 17 points on 7-for-12 shooting from the floor and the Eastern Washington Eagles rolled to an 82-56 exhibition victory over the visiting Central Washington Wildcats.

Felice Moore and Jamie Chicane each scored 10 for EWU, while Abby Johnson snagged 16 rebounds.

Volleyball

The ninth-ranked Hawaii Rainbow Wahine (18-6, 12-0) swept the Idaho Vandals 30-18, 30-23, 30-23 in Western Athletic Conference play late Saturday in Honolulu.

Amanda Bowman topped Idaho (13-12, 5-7) with 11 kills. Haley Larsen added nine kills and Meghan Brown had a team-high 14 digs.