SALEM, Ore. – After nearly 500 days away from the lovely confines of the C.E. Jeffers Sports Center, the NAIA's No. 14-ranked Corban University women's volleyball team debuted the all-new
Tim Hills Court to a handful of fans with a four-set victory, 3-1 (25-14, 23-25, 28-26, 25-18), over Lewis-Clark State College in Cascade Collegiate Conference action Friday night.
"We started out the match tight and struggled with staying in system offensively," said head coach
Kim McLain. "LC State is a good team. They challenged us in many ways and I'm very proud how the team responded."
With the win, Corban improves to 8-1 overall and an identical 8-1 record in Cascade Collegiate Conference play. Meanwhile, Lewis-Clark State drops to 5-4 overall and 5-4 in conference action.
The Navy and Gold were led offensively by Rylee Troutman with a match-high 15 kills on 30 swings with a mere three attacking errors. The first-year Warrior led all players with a .400 hitting percentage, while also collecting three services aces and four digs.
Troutman was aided offensively by Sarena Bartley and Ally Tow with 10 and 8 kills, respectively, while Allyson Reid added seven kills of her own. The Warrior offense was led by the duo of Ciarra Judson and Jadyn Mullen with 19 and 18 assists, respectively, to go along with Kealani Ontai's match-high 26 digs defensively. At the net, a trio of Warriors – Avari Ridgway, Cora Furman, and Bartley – registered two blocks each.
The opening set would see Lewis-Clark State build a quick 4-1 lead before the Navy and Gold battled back via a 6-1 run to take a two-point lead (7-5) on a Troutman kill. Both teams would trade points until the score was 11-10 in favor of the home team. Corban would rattle off four straight points behind the serving of Ontai to build a 15-10 lead. A Warrior hitting error would stop the run for a short time before Judson stepped behind the service line and rattled off six straight points, as Corban secured a 21-11 lead on a kill by Ridgway. Lewis-Clark State would get within eight points (22-13) before the host Warriors used a 3-1 run to close out the opening set via a 25-14 victory.
Set #2 would start with Corban earning a 12-6 lead thanks to a kill by Tow. Not wanting to go quietly into the night, Lewis-Clark State mounted a comeback using a 6-1 run to get within a single point (13-12). Using the serving arm of Ontai once again, Corban would score four unanswered points grabbing a 17-12 lead following back-to-back attack errors by Lewis-Clark State. Following a time out by Lewis-Clark State, the visiting Warriors used a 10-3 run behind the serving of Chloe Emory and Kendzee Cloward to take a 22-20 lead. The Navy and Gold would battle to tie the set at 22-all, but that would be as close as the home squad would get falling 25-23 behind Lewis-Clark State's set-closing 3-1 run.
The third set would turn out to be a dog fight, as Lewis-Clark State jumped out to a 7-2 lead before extending it to 10 points (20-10). With the potential of falling behind, Corban began its comeback and rode the arm of Maddie Stimmel through a 14-4 run to tie everything at 24-all. During the run, Troutman would register three kills with Reid adding a pair of her own. Both teams would trade points to force extra play, as a Lewis-Clark State serving error would knot things at 26-26. Corban's defensive pressure forced the visiting Warriors into a pair of attack errors to close out the set, as the Navy and Gold concluded Set #3 on an 18-6 run to secure a 2-1 lead on the scoreboard.
The fourth and final set would start with a pair of 4-0 runs by both teams and was tied at 16-16 before Corban used a mini 3-1 run to pull ahead 19-17. Following a kill by Lewis-Clark State's Jada Wyms, the host Warriors closed out the match on a 6-0 run highlighted by a pair of kills by Bartley to secure the 25-18 victory to extend their winning streak to two matches.
Lewis-Clark State was led offensively by Emory with 12 kills, while Wyms added eight. The visiting Warriors were guided by Hannah Martinez and Jess Ruffing, who combined to hand out 29 assists. Kenzie Dean led Lewis-Clark State's defense with 20 digs to go along with four blocks each by Hallie Seaman and Wyms.
These same two teams will square off again tomorrow – Saturday, March 20 – when Corban and Lewis-Clark State return to the court for a 6:00 p.m. match inside the C.E. Jeffers Sports Center.
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