SOU Sweeps Warner Pacific, 3-0
ASHLAND, Ore. – The Southern Oregon volleyball team continues to dominate its Cascade Conference competition, topping Warner Pacific College, 3-0 on Friday night in McNeal Pavilion. With the win the Raiders improve to 14-4 overall and 8-1 in CCC play, while the Knights fall to 7-7 and 3-6, respectively.
Continuing many streaks, the Raiders posted their 14th consecutive home win (including eight matches from 2006), while also improving to a nine-match winning streak this season. Not only do the Raiders have a long home streak to be proud of, they can also claim that no team has won even a single game on their court since Oct. 20, 2006 when Oregon Tech took one game in a 3-1 win. With two three game wins in 2006 added to the six three-game wins this season, the Raider have an 8-0 three-game home court winning streak as well.
The Raiders worked hard to keep their streaks alive on Friday, while WPC pushed a tough three games. In game one, the Raiders topped the Knights 30-21 after battling to pull ahead the entire game. The scene was very much the same in game two, with Warner Pacific not giving up and pushing to 30-23 win where the Raiders were able to pull away in the final points. However, after the game-two intermission, the Raiders came out on fire hitting .552 with a match high of 19 kills in a game to top the Knights 30-16.
The Raiders were able to showcase their talents with senior Richelle Millsap (Bend, Ore.) leading the way with 15 kills (.667). Mia Wortel (Estacada, Ore.) performed like always putting down 12 kills (.450) while also adding a team high of seven blocks. Running the Raiders’ offense, Lindsey Stone (Ashland, Ore.) tallied 44 assists on the night with the help of good defensive efforts from her sister Emily Stone (Ashland, Ore.) who put up 20 digs on the night. Lindsey Stone, Katie Pluchos (Portland, Ore.) and Jaclyn Hamilton-Smith (Eugene, Ore.) all registered one ace apiece.
Warner Pacific was led by Leah Gradwohl who tallied 12 kills on the night while Kara Van Zanten added 10 kills. Kayli Anderson aided the Knights with 28 assists while Samantha Kolakowski tallied 19 digs and the Knights’ lone ace of the night.
The Raiders were able to hit .336 on the night with 52 kills while holding the Knights to 33 kills and a .116 percentage.
The Raiders will continue their Cascade Conference play on Saturday, Oct. 6 in McNeal Pavilion when they host Cascade College in a 7 p.m. match.