Raiders Outlast Owls in Key Volleyball Tilt - Cascade Collegiate Conference Skip To Main Content

Cascade Collegiate Conference

Raiders Outlast Owls in Key Volleyball Tilt
Mia Wortel paced Southern Oregon with 18 kills Tuesday night.

Raiders Outlast Owls in Key Volleyball Tilt

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ASHLAND, Ore - Sparked by the play of freshman Kalista Harrison, the Southern Oregon volleyball team held off Oregon Tech 25-21, 20-25, 25-20, 23-25, 15-8 tonight in a loud and half-packed McNeal Pavilion.
The Raiders improved to 16-9 overall and 14-3 in Cascade Conference play. Oregon Tech is now 19-5 overall and 14-3 in conference play. Thanks to the season sweep, the Raiders hold the tiebreaker with Owls for second place. SOU hosts Northwest Christian Friday night at 7 p.m.

Senior Mia Wortel led the Raiders with 18 kills and seven blocks. Junior setter Lindsey Stone had a match-high 57 assists. Krista Wooley led OIT with a match-high 21 kills.

Harrison entered the match late in Set 4 and took over the match in Set 5.

The former Roseburg High School star had a pair of solo blocks to help give the Raiders a 6-0 lead in the finale. Back-to-back kills by Harrison and then another solo block gave SOU a 10-4 lead and forced the Owls into a timeout.

The timeout didn’t slow down Harrison. Two more Harrison kills put SOU up 13-5.

The Owls came back with three SOU attack errors, but the Raiders overcame those mistakes to win the match on a Lindsey Stone kill.

Harrison had eight kills in two sets and four blocks.

“I put her in to give us a better opportunity to give us some blocking,” SOU Head Coach Josh Rohlfing. “She’s the type of player that once she gets on a roll she’s virtually impossible to stop. She’s an incredible athlete and did a nice job of putting the ball away.”

After the two teams split the first two sets, SOU looked to be in complete control as they dominated the third set - hitting .302 with only three attack errors.

In the fourth set the Owls came back from down 16-8 to tie the set at 19-19 on an SOU attack error.

Harrison came out with back-to-back kills to give the Raiders a 21-19 lead, but Oregon Tech rallied, knotting the set at 22-22 and 23-23 before winning the set 25-23.

“We stopped passing and serve receiving,” Rohlfing said. “Give them credit, their hitters did what they needed to do.”

Leanne Stennett had a career-night for the Raiders, going for 15 kills. Sarah Holgen finished with 13 kills. SOU finished with 25 blocks.

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