13th-Ranked Southern Oregon Sweeps Geoducks
OLYMPIA – High-flying Paulla Pinheiro and Motade Atanda combined for 24 kills and 16 digs Saturday evening to lead 13th-ranked Southern Oregon to a 25-17, 25-17, 25-21 win over the Evergreen Geoducks in Cascade Collegiate Conference volleyball action at CRC Gymnasium.
The Raiders improved their overall record to 14-3 and their conference mark to 8-1 with the victory, while Evergreen falls to 11-11 overall and 2-7 in the CCC.
Pinheiro finished with 13 kills and just two errors in 25 attacks for an impressive .440 kill percentage. Atanda ended up with 11 kills and hit .222 during the match.
As a team, Southern Oregon compiled an impressive overall attack percentage of .283, including .500 in the second set. Setter Lauren McGowne directed the offense with 32 assists.
Team leaders for Evergreen included Jaclyn Trinque with 22 assists and Natimia Barker-Doss with 10 digs. Nicole Diehl with 10 kills, while Brandee Victorino finished with nine kills and a .286 attack percentage. The Geoducks hit .138 during the match, owing in part to an impressive blocking effort by the Raiders.
Southern Oregon finished with nine team blocks, including three block solos and three block assists by Emma Gassman.
The Raiders led throughout the first set and there were two ties and just one lead change in the second set before Evergreen battled on near even terms in a final set that showed four lead changes and 12 ties.
The Geoducks hit the road next week for a pair of conference matches. They play College of Idaho in Nampa at 7 p.m. Friday and Eastern Oregon in La Grande at 4:30 p.m. Saturday.