Research on You Tube and other resources pointed to a drain hose as the probable culprit. I ordered a new hose from AppliancePartsPros. it was a perfect fit. The best part is that it was delivered much quicker than I was promised on the order form.
the repair was as simple ad depicted on their video. If I wasn't such a neat freak cleaning up "under the hood" the repair would have taken under 20 minutes
an easy fix if you have a good set of pliers