Big Wins Land SOU Volleyball Team Honor
PORTLAND, Ore. – Fourteenth-ranked Southern Oregon posted an important home sweep against upper echelon Cascade Collegiate Conference teams to earn the CCC “Verizon Team of the Week” award, the conference office announced Monday.
The Raiders, who extended their winning streak to 13 consecutive matches, knocked off sixth-ranked College of Idaho 3-2 Friday after dropping the first two sets to the Coyotes. One night later, SOU held on to defeat Eastern Oregon in another five-set match to take over sole possession of second place in the conference standings.
In Friday’s epic battle with College of Idaho, a victory which snapped the Yotes’ 18-match win streak, the Raiders lost the first two sets before rallying. In the deciding set there were 15 ties, and the Raiders faced match point three times before eventually pulling out a 19-17 victory.
With Saturday’s victory over Eastern Oregon, SOU clinched the No. 2 seed in this weekend’s CCC Volleyball Tournament. All five sets were decided by four points or less, with three decided by the minimum two points. SOU won the deciding stanza 15-11.
Said SOU coach Josh Rohlfing of his team’s comeback vs. College of Idaho: “[After falling behind 2-0] we were just trying to get our team right, to make them feel OK. We just wanted to make a match of it. We weren’t focused on how we were going to win, but looked at how we were going to play better. We wanted to take it little bit by little bit, and get the players mentally right. The whole thought process was to relax, get them calm and try to figure out how to make some adjustments and get it right.”
Previous Verizon Team of the Week awardees.