Raiders hold off Evergreen in five

9/9/2016 9:11:00 PM

SOU Sports Information

ASHLAND – One streak died and another was on life support Friday night before the Southern Oregon volleyball team swatted away an attempt at a monumental upset by Evergreen State (Wash.) at Mountain Avenue Gym.

In Cascade Conference action and their home-opener, the Raiders had to rally in the fifth set to deny the Geoducks and finish off a 25-16, 25-16, 23-25, 24-26, 15-12 decision that was their 26th consecutive victory in the head-to-head series.

After dominating the first two sets, the Raiders (5-5 overall, 2-1 CCC) were working on a string of 63 set wins in a row in the series dating back to 2005. That's when the Evergreen (2-7, 1-2) poked a hole in their momentum. At one point the Geoducks led the tiebreaker, 8-6, and it was 10-10 until their attacking error and consecutive Lauren McGowne aces put SOU in control for good.

McGowne, a senior setter, put those clutch serves on top of a monster night in which she delivered a career-high 62 assists, frequently setting up Emma Gasman (17 kills), Nila Lukens (16), Courtney Macklin (15) and Taylor Ristvedt (14), all of whom attacked at averages better than .300. McGowne also had six of SOU's 10 blocks, and Gasman had five.

As a team, the Raiders hit .286. But they couldn't slow down the Geoducks in the third frame (.367) and had a match-worst .109 showing in the fourth.

When they trailed 8-6, the Raiders turned to Macklin to cut the lead in half. An Evergreen attacking error tied it up, and McGowne's solo block and another Evergreen error capped SOU's 4-0 run. Following McGowne's aces at 11-10, kills by Ariana Sattler and Emma Gasman finished the match.

The last time SOU and Evergreen had gone to five sets was in 2003 in Olympia, Evergreen's lone win in the 31-match all-time series.

Jorden Porter's 20 kills and Matisse Davis' 10 carried the Geoducks, who combined to hit .203. Kylie Kytan dished out 50 assists, and Cheyenne Baird had a match-high 18 digs.

Three Raiders recorded double-figure dig totals: Kiley Barcroft (14), Lukens (11) and Ashlyn Flynn (10).

SOU is home again Saturday for the NAIA Network Match of the Week at 5 p.m. against Northwest (Wash.).