Corban dominated #10-ranked SOU on Friday night in a sweep. (Photo Credit: Doug Pfeiler)
SALEM, Ore. – While dominating from start to finish on Friday evening, the No. 22-ranked Corban University volleyball team blew past No. 10-ranked Southern Oregon University in straight sets (25-12, 25-22, 25-20), shocking the Raiders in the C.E. Jeffers Sports Center.
"Tonight was definitely a team effort all the way around," said Corban head coach Kim McLain. "The work started in practice this week, pushing one another! Defense was huge tonight, allowing our offense to run on point!"
Corban swung for a .366 hitting percentage on the evening while playing dominant defense and holding the 10th-ranked Raiders to just a .148 attacking mark. Corban totaled six aces, 44 kills, and 42 assists – all more than Southern on the night.
Demi Winters was on fire at the net, racking up a match-high 11 kills while hitting at a .625 clip. Just as impressive, Regan Murray totaled 10 kills and no errors with a .556 attacking percentage, while Avari Ridgway also swung for 10 kills on a .421 hitting mark. In addition, Tori Edwards chipped in eight kills for the Navy and Gold in the victory.
Cierra Leopoldino dished out a match-high 23 assists while Jadyn Mullen totaled 16 in the victory. Defensively, Madison Pfaff notched a team-best 10 digs, while Kealani Ontai tallied six.
For the Raiders in the defeat, Taylor Ristvedt recorded eight kills, as did Dani Johnson. Natalie James led the way with 16 assists, and defensively, Kiley Barcroft notched a team-leading eight digs.
Despite the loss, Southern Oregon still controls its own destiny in the Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) regular-season title race. Thanks to an Eastern Oregon five-set defeat to College of Idaho tonight, if the Raiders win on Saturday at Northwest Christian University, SOU (23-3, 16-3) will clinch a share of the CCC regular-season championship and earn the No. 1 overall seed in the CCC Tournament thanks to owning the tiebreaker over EOU.
Corban (18-10, 14-5 CCC) returns to the court for the last regular-season match of the year on Saturday when it hosts Oregon Tech. First serve in Salem is slated for 5 p.m.