Sarah Holgen had 16 kills for the Raiders.
Raiders Fall In Pool Play Opener
ASHLAND, ORE. -- The 14th-ranked Southern Oregon had leads in all three sets before falling to 12th-ranked Embry-Riddle 26-24, 25-22, 25-23 tonight in the opener of pool play at the NAIA Volleyball National Championships in Sioux City, Iowa.
The Raiders (23-4) now faces top-ranked and unbeaten Lee (35-0) tomorrow at 3:45 (PST) in a must-win match. The top two teams out of each four-team pool advance to bracket play.
Sarah Holgen led the Raiders with 16 kills. Megan Bartling turned in 10 kills and Lindsey Stone had 41 assists.
Abby Hall had 19 kills and only two errors to lead the Eagles.
In the opening set, the Raiders jumped out to leads to 3-1 and 7-3 and led 13-9 on a kill by Holgen. Three-straight kills by Lauren Swetland, Holgen and Leah Bergstrom gave the Raiders a 21-18 advantage, but the Eagles came back with four straight points for a 22-21 lead.
SOU held off one set point to tie it at 24-24 before Taylor Martin and Gloria Kemp put the set away with kills.
In the second set, the Raiders rallied to take a 13-11 lead on a Bergstrom kill and a 14-12 lead on a kill by Leanne Stennett. A Holgen kill and back-to-back Embry attack errors gave the Raiders their biggest lead of the set at 19-16. The Eagles came back with three straight points to tie the set at 19-19 and then tied it again at 20-20 and 21-21 before closing out the set.
In the third set, the Raiders rallied from a 16-13 deficit to take a 17-16 lead thanks to a pair of Bartling kills. The Eagles tried to pull away at 20-18, but SOU was not going to go down quietly.
An Embry attack error tied the set at 20-20, a kill by Holgen tied it at 21-21 and another Holgen kill tied it at 22-22 before Embry scored three of the final four points to close out the match.
Swetland finished with three blocks, while Stennett had 18 digs and Becky Johnstone had 17 digs.