EUGENE, Ore. – After sweeping Eastern Oregon University in 2012, the Beacons had the Mountaineers on the ropes again on Friday night, but a pair of comebacks in the first and second sets spelled disaster for the Northwest Christian University Volleyball team. EOU ended up pulling out the three-set victory, 25-19, 26-24, 25-23.
Maren Mansfield set the early tone for the Beacons in the first set scoring the first point with a kill and NCU was off to the races. The lead moved to 15-10 as Northwest Christian looked to be in control of the match. The Mounties, however, began to prove why they are the #14 ranked team in the NAIA, using a 6-1 run to tie the game at 16-16, during a string that included four unforced errors for the Beacons. The teams were tied at the next three points, but after a 19-19 score, EOU posted six unanswered points to walk away with the first set.
The Beacons again took control of the second set, quickly going up 3-0 on the strength of back-to-back kills by Janel Fetters. The Mounties, however, scored the next four points and a back-and-fourth battle ensued, leading up to a slight 14-12 lead for the Beacons. NCU again tried to pull away, using a 5-1 run to grab their biggest lead of the night at 19-13. But EOU started to chip away once again, pulling even at 22-22 before snagging the extra-point win on consecutive kills from Stefani Sorensen.
Last season the Beacons found themselves in the same situation twice against Eastern Oregon, having lost the first two sets. Both times NCU was able to muster up the strength to pull out five-set wins. That history was clearly on the minds of the Mountaineers at the start of the third set. EOU leaped out to a 6-0 lead to open and never trailed despite a late charge from Northwest Christian.
Head Coach Mike Gaffaney said, “This kind of a loss is sometimes worse than losing to a good team and playing well. We made some mistakes that all teams are going to make, but we make them at critical times. We were playing the 14th ranked team in the nation and we had control in the first two sets. Unfortunately, because of some mental errors and lack of execution we gave those sets away.”
Eastern Oregon (14-2, 4-0 CCC) was led by Casey Loper a junior Middle Blocker who collected 14 kills and three blocks while hitting .571. Sorensen did the damage on the outside, finishing with eight kills against just one error while Taylor Stewart also posted eight kills and six digs. Karly Stack finished the night with 19 assists, eight digs and two aces and Jessalyn Smith led all players with 13 digs.
“I was really impressed with Eastern tonight,” said Gaffaney. “They played like the best team in the conference and the top-25 team that they are. They were very consistent throughout all three sets and they went to the players that we knew they were going to, we just couldn’t shut them down.”
NCU (9-4, 3-2) was led by Fetters, finishing with team highs of 11 kills and nine digs. Chelsea McGowan added nine kills and Chandler Gabrio posted six kills and a match-high three blocks. Cori Wallace scored 31 assists, while Mansfield finished with seven digs, five kills and a pair of service aces.
The Beacons return to action on Saturday at 1:00 pm when they play host to The College of Idaho (3-7, 3-1). Eastern will travel north to Salem to take on Corban University (2-12, 0-5) at 7:00 pm.