ELLENSBURG, Wash. - Fresno Pacific continued play at the PacWest/GNAC Challenge on Friday, falling in straight sets to Central Washington 25-21, 25-23 and 25-14. The loss dropped the PacWest Conference to 0-8 at the tournament.

Freshman Madison Pierce turned in an exceptional performance with a team-high eight kills and .583 attack percentage. Morghan Williams added seven kills (.308) and four blocks as the Sunbirds did a nice job of getting their middle blockers involved in the offense. Hannah Butler led the defense with 14 digs and Bissie DenHartog dished out 17 assists.

"Central Washington, like the rest of the GNAC teams at this tournament, is a talented, well-coached team with a lot of size," said head coach Matt Terra. "We've been growing as a team with each match and I'm proud of the way the girls have continued to fight and give them all we've got. Today, it was good to see the middles come along. Madison is a talented player and you can see her starting to build confidence, getting comfortable with our setters and beginning to understand that she can be dominant."

The teams were tied at 20 in the first set before a 5-1 Wildcat run closed it out. FPU came within one point of tying up the match late in the second set before falling 25-23. The Wildcats ran away with set three, hitting .519 in the final frame.

FPU hit .141 as a team for the match compared to .292 for CWU. Linden Firethorne had 11 kills to lead the Wildcats (2-3).

The Sunbirds conclude the tournament by taking on defending GNAC champion Northwest Nazarene at noon tomorrow.