Raiders Take Down Cavs in Five
ASHLAND, ORE. -- The Southern Oregon volleyball was pushed to the limit by Concordia today before pulling off a 23-25, 25-16, 26-24, 22-25, 16-14 victory tonight at McNeal Pavilion.
Southern Oregon has now won seven straight and improved to 8-1 overall and 2-0 in Cascade Conference action. Concordia dropped to 4-4 overall and 1-1 in conference play. Southern Oregon hits the road next weekend with matches at unbeaten Eastern Oregon and 18th-ranked and unbeaten College of Idaho.
Chelsea Hartman led SOU with 20 kills, while Leah Bergstrom finished with 18 and Sarah Holgen had 10. Freshman Caryn Westrick had 34 assists for SOU and Becky Johnstone came away with 26 digs.
Down two sets to one, Concordia forced the fifth set back hitting an impressive .306 in the fourth set.
In the finale, neither team could land the knockout punch.
SOU tried to put the decisive set away early, using a pair of Bergstrom kills and an ace by Johnstone to take an early 5-1 lead. Concordia came back and tied it at 6-6 following an SOU attack error and the set would go back-and-forth from that point on.
Hartman gave SOU match point with a kill and after Concordia turned SOU’s attempt to end the match, Hartman fired back with back-to-back kills to finally give SOU the match with a 16-14 victory.
Heather Porter had a hand in seven of SOU’s 21 blocks on the night and also finished with nine kills. Red-shirt freshman Angela Spieker finished with 28 assists and three aces.
Concordia was led by Mariana Toscano’s 20 kills and setter Skyler Kamaka finished with 55 assists.