2013 Player of the Year Casey Loper- EOU
No. 12 EOU hosts RV CU in NAIA Volleyball Match of the Week
NAIA Match of the Week – No. 6
RV Concordia (Ore.) (10-4, 7-0 CCC) at No. 12 Eastern Oregon (16-2, 6-1 CCC)
Friday, Oct. 3 | 7 p.m. PDT | Quinn Coliseum | La Grande, Ore.
Live Video | Live Stats – Provided by Eastern Oregon & Stretch Internet
• First-place in the Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) is on the line Friday when No. 12 Eastern Oregon hosts Concordia (Ore.) in the NAIA Match of the Week.
• Concordia, who received votes in the latest Tachikara-NAIA Volleyball Coaches’ Top 25 Poll, holds a one-game lead over Eastern Oregon and Southern Oregon with a 7-0 conference record. The Mountaineers and Raiders are 6-1 in the league.
• Friday night marks the second-straight season that Eastern Oregon and Concordia have locked up in the NAIA Match of the Week. In 2013, the Mountaineers were victorious, 3-2 (25-23, 19-25, 28-26, 20-25, 16-14), on Oct. 5, 2013.
• The two sides faced off three times in 2013 with Eastern Oregon winning 2-of-3.
• Eastern Oregon closed September with a 7-1 record. The Mountaineers’ only loss during the month came at Southern Oregon, 3-2, on Sept. 26.
• The Mountaineers are 3-0 at home in 2014.
• Senior middle hitter Casey Loper is a force in the middle for Eastern Oregon. The Third Team NAIA All-American and reigning CCC Player of the Year leads the team in kills (274), hitting percentage (.343), service aces (13) and blocks (67). Loper has six double-doubles this season, including a 12 kill, 12 dig performance against Oregon Tech on Sept. 27. She enters Friday 15 kills shy of 1,000 for her career.
• As a team, Eastern Oregon ranks among the top 10 in the NAIA in assists per set (7th; 12.77) and kills per set (8th; 13.8).
• Concordia owns the only national championship appearance between the two sides. The Cavaliers represented the CCC in 2000, but failed to advance out of pool play.
• Concordia is riding an eight-match winning streak, including a 3-1 win against crosstown rival Warner Pacific (Ore.) its last time out on Sept. 26. The win represented the 100th career victory for sixth-year head coach Melanie Hambleton, who stands eight wins shy of the program record.
• Concordia is 0-2 against ranked teams this season – lost to then-No. 8 Biola (Calif.), 3-1, on Aug. 21 and then-No. 19 The Master’s (Calif.), 3-2, on Aug. 22.
• Concordia features a balanced offensive attack that features four individuals with at least 110 kills on the year. Junior outside hitter Ashley Jibby leads the quartet with 138 kills, followed by freshman outside hitter Lindsey Dorsey’s 125.
• Defense at the net has been a key to Concordia’s success this season, as the Cavaliers rank sixth nationally in blocks per set (2.55). Freshman outside hitter Nicole Barth leads the team and ranks sixth nationally with a 1.31 blocks per set average, followed by junior outside hitter Brianna Hogan. Hogan is ninth in the NAIA at 1.25 blocks per set.