The Geoducks celebrate a point against Southern Oregon.
Southern Oregon Storms Back to Beat Evergreen
OLYMPIA – After taking a hotly contested first set, The Evergreen State College couldn't maintain its momentum Saturday and ended up dropping a four-set Cascade Collegiate Conference volleyball match to the visiting Southern Oregon Raiders inside Costantino Recreation Center.
Set scores were 23-25, 25-19, 25-16, 25-19.
Throughout the first set, the Geoducks (4-14 overall, 3-9 CCC) and the Raiders (10-9, 7-5) looked poised to repeat their five-set thriller won by Southern Oregon on Sept. 9 in Ashland, Ore. The final three sets, however, belonged to the visitors.
There were 14 ties and five lead changes in the opening set and both teams had to battle the opposing defenses to finish their attack attempts. Evergreen hit .196 in the set against a Southern Oregon front line that registered three team blocks. On the other side of the net, the Raiders hit .200 while the Evergreen defense notched two team blocks and 26 digs, including 10 by libero Megan Breckenridge.
Evergreen broke away from an 18-18 tie with three straight points, those coming on a kill by Bethanie Nelson and consecutive finishes by Chloee Hunt. Southern Oregon eventually cut its deficit to 24-23 on Lauren McGowne's service ace, but the Geoducks finished it on Natalie Taylor's eighth kill of the set.
Southern Oregon grabbed the momentum in the second set and carried it through the remainder of the match, taking early leads in each of the final three sets to put away the Geoducks.
Courtney Macklin, who had just one kill in the opening set, finished with four, five and three kills in the ensuing sets to lead her team with 13 total kills. She also finished with a .286 attack percentage, while on defense she led her team with eight block assists.
McGowne worked the ball around to many different attacking options on the way to 42 assists. A total of 10 different Southern Oregon players had kills in the match, including eight in the third set alone.
All of that happened for the Raiders despite some incredible blocking by the Geoducks, who finished with 12.5 team blocks. They had 2.0 blocks in each of the first two sets before getting 4.5 in the third and 4.0 in the fourth. Nelson led the way with an incredible nine block assists, followed by Hunt with four and Taylor and Kylie Kytan with three apiece.
Evergreen, meanwhile, struggled to get going on offense over the final three sets, never hitting better than .057. Southern Oregon was also tough at the net with 12.0 team blocks and 72 digs, including 23 in the third set.
In addition to the standout performances by Macklin and McGowne, the Raiders got 10 kills from Emma Gasman, six block assists from Taylor Ristvedt, and a match-high 24 digs from Ashlyn Flynn. the Raiders finished the match with a .199 attack percentage.
Taylor finished with 17 kills and 14 digs, Hunt had 10 kills and three service aces, and Kytan added 30 assists and a team-best 15 digs. Evergreen hit .081 for the match.
The Geoducks step out of conference play one final time this season when they host the Saint Martin's Saints at 7 p.m. Tuesday.