Beacons storm back to top Raiders in five
SOU Sports Information
ASHLAND – Northwest Christian stormed back from a 2-0 sets deficit and stunned Southern Oregon on Friday night with an 18-25, 20-25, 25-22, 25-21, 15-12 Cascade Conference victory at Mountain Avenue Gym.
The Beacons (11-14 overall, 9-10 CCC), totaled 15 blocks, including a match-high seven from Cassidy Winters and six from Macy DuCoeur, and held the Raiders (14-12, 11-8) to attacking averages of .132, .000 and .161 over the final three frames.
Taylor Burnett registered 20 kills on 60 attacks and 17 digs, and Maci Beierle had 43 assists and 18 digs.
With the win, the Beacons also put themselves in position to clinch the sixth and final spot in the CCC tournament. They jumped a match up in the standings over Warner Pacific, which lost in five sets to Northwest, and can secure a berth on the final night of the regular season Saturday with a win at Oregon Tech or a WPC loss against Evergreen.
Already locked into the No. 5 seed, the Raiders dropped their third straight going into their final home match of the season at 7 p.m. Saturday against 22nd-ranked Corban.
The Raiders were in position to sweep thanks to big nights for
Emma Gasman (18 kills),
Courtney Macklin (16 kills),
Lauren McGowne (43 assits, 10 digs) and
Ashlyn Flynn. But, tied at 22 in the third set, they came out of a timeout with a service error and two attacking errors – the latter being the results of a combo block for Winters and Beierle.
SOU also scored the first three points of the third set and was tied, 16-16, when NCU rattled off a 6-0 run that was capped by three straight blocks. Tied 11-all in the fifth, the Beacons scored their last four points on kills by Winters and Burnett and a pair of SOU attacking errors.
The Beacons snapped a seven-match losing streak in the series with SOU.