Lady Owls Knock off Knights in 5 Set Thriller
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore.- Kelsey Sampson had 20 kills in leading Oregon Tech to a thrilling 5 set win over Warner Pacific (25-21, 26-24, 27-29, 13-25, 16-14) Saturday night at Danny Miles Court. With the win the Owls keep their playoff hopes alive improving to 6-8 in the Cascade Conference and 10-10 on the year. Warner Pacific also sits at 6-8 in the CCC and is now 7-9 on the year.
Oregon Tech Head Coach Andrew Clifton on his team’s big win, "I am very proud of the team tonight. The first 3 games were the cleanest volleyball I have seen from them all year. It was nice to see them fight back in the 5th game as well. I feel like we are starting to get our rhythm as a team and we will enjoy tonight's win and get back in the gym on Monday for Wednesday's match versus Southern."
OIT took the first set 25-21 behind 6 kills from Sophomore Bailey Nelson. The Knights took an early 5-2 lead before Tech rallied to tie the set at 5-5. Tech then built leads of 12-9 and 18-14 but WP battled back to tie things up at 20. The Owls then took five of the final six points for the win.
Tech built an early 7-3 lead in the second set before WP scored the next six points to take a 9-7 lead. Following an OIT timeout, Oregon Tech would go on a mini run to take a 16-14 lead. Warner Pacific took a 24-22 lead but OIT would not be denied as they took the next four points to win 26-24.
Set 3 was a real battle with the Knights grabbing momentum with a 29-27 win as they scored 4 of the final 5 points.
WP kept that momentum going by jumping out to an early 4-0 lead in the fourth set. They grew that lead to 12-7 and 20-12 before winning the 4
th set 25-13 to force a final 5
th set.
In the decisive 5
th set it was the Owls who grabbed momentum back with an early 4-1 lead. Back came the Knights to tie the game at 5 and then take a 7-5 lead on one of Janessa Mast’s game high 23 kills. The Knights went up 11-9 on yet another kill by Mast. Tech would capture 7 of the final 9 points to win the set 16-14, and take the match 3-2.
After Sampson’s 20 kills, Tech was led by Whitney Webster’s 15 kills with Bailey Nelson adding 12 kills and Mikayla Rubey chipping in 10 kills for the win.
Waverly Green had a huge night with 46 assists in the win for OIT.
Tech had a hit percentage of .164 with Warner Pacific having a slightly higher percentage at .168.
Kealia Rosa had 50 assists for the Knights.
Oregon Tech has won 3 out of their last 4 matches and will look to knock off rival Southern Oregon University Wednesday night at Danny Miles Court for the annual “Pink out” game at 7:00 pm.