CORVALLIS, Ore. – The Cascade Collegiate Conference season continued Friday, with two tournament-style pods at the College of Idaho and Lewis-Clark State College.
Caldwell, Idaho Pod
In Caldwell, Idaho, C of I hosted Bushnell University for a pair of matches, while No. 8-ranked Eastern Oregon University and Warner Pacific University battled it out.
Saturday puts College of Idaho and Warner Pacific up against each other, while Eastern Oregon and Bushnell will square off.
College of Idaho (2-5, 2-4 CCC) vs. Bushnell (8-2, 4-2 CCC)
The first match of the day proved to be one of the most exciting with it taking five sets to determine a winner. College of Idaho took the first set 26-24, but fell 23-25 in the second. The Coyotes then bounced back to win the third, but the Beacons grabbed the final two to win the match 3-2 (24-26, 25-23, 14-25, 25-17, 15-12).
It came down to the final set with the Beacons building an 8-2 lead before C o I battled back to tie the set at 9-9. An attack error from the Yotes put Bushnell back in the driver’s seat, which it wouldn’t let go as the Beacons closed out the win with a kill from Camille Guerrero.
Cam Lingenfelder led the Beacons with a game-high 17 kills and had three aces. Makenna Northern – who has been the CCC Volleyball Setter of the Week the past three weeks – finished with 42 assists and had three aces, while Callie Wilkins had 16 digs and three aces to help Bushnell hold a 14-to-5 ace advantage.
Cameron Wallace led the Coyotes with 14 kills, while two other Yotes had double-digit kills: Danielle Neuman (11) and Chloe Knudson (10). Neuman also came up big at the net with seven blocks, while Knudson – and Ali Carpenter – contributed 17 digs in the match. Margie Beeler posted 24 assists for C of I.
In the second matchup, neither team could find its rhythm on offense with both teams hitting below a .100 clip. The Beacons pulled out the 25-21 victory and turned things around to hit at a .314 percent in the second, winning the set 25-15. Bushnell then sealed the deal with a 25-22 victory in the third to take the match in three.
Claire Salness led the Beacons with 11 kills, while Natlie Martin finished with eight blocks in the match. Northern added another 28 assists and completed a double-double with 11 digs. Lingenfelder finished with 10 digs for Bushnell.
Wallace led the Coyotes once again, finishing with six kills in the match and posted four blocks. Beeler dished out 14 assists, while Abigail Guinn added another 13. Carpenter chipped in 15 digs.
No. 8 Eastern Oregon (7-0, 6-0 CCC) vs. Warner Pacific (0-6, 0-6 CCC)
After finding itself down by seven in the first set, 14-7, Warner Pacific scored four consecutive points to get back in it. Grace Buchanan sparked the four-point run to put the Knights within three and Matalasi Laban and Bethany McKnight teamed up for back-to-back blocks during the run to keep the Mountaineers at bay. The Knights pulled within two, 19-17, late in the set, but couldn’t carry momentum over as EOU took the set 25-19. WPU continued to battle, but couldn’t overcome the Mounties, falling in three (25-19, 25-16, 25-10).
Cambree Scott (12) and Breanna Shaffer (10) each posted double-digit kills for EOU, while Madison Pilon dished out 23 assists. Kiley McMurtrey finished with 18 digs and had two aces for the Mountaineers.
Buchanan led the Knights with a game-high 13 kills, while Laban had a career-high 24 assists in the opener. Defensively, Mercedes Massey finished with 40 digs on the day, with 21 in the first match.
In the nightcap, WPU struggled to find its rhythm offensively while EOU couldn’t seem to miss. The Mountaineers won the first set 25-12 by hitting at a .552 clip. The Knights tightened up on defense, allowing just a .122 hitting percentage in the second set and a .188 clip in the third, but couldn’t overcome EOU as the Mounties won the next two sets 25-17 and 25-5.
Sade Williams led Eastern Oregon with 10 kills, while Preslee Jensen came up big with seven blocks. Pilon finished with 27 assists, while McMurtrey had 19 kills and Aspen Christiansen added another 13.
Buchanan led the Knights with eight kills and Laban finished with 10 assists in the second matchup. Defensively, Mercedes Massey finished with 40 digs on the day, with 19 more in the second.
Lewiston, Idaho Pod
In Lewiston, Idaho, LC State hosted Oregon Tech, while No. 13 Corban University and Multnomah University took each other on.
Tomorrow, LC State hosts Multnomah for a pair of games while Corban and OIT will battle it out.
LC State (3-3, 3-3 CCC) vs. Oregon Tech (6-3, 3-3 CCC)
The Warriors and Owls were pretty evenly matched up, with both teams taking a match win on the day. OIT took the first match in three (25-17, 25-22, 26-24), with LC State putting up a battle in the final two sets.
Down by five in the second, 22-17, the Warriors rattled off three-straight points to pull within two but couldn’t seem to get closer as errors plagued LC State from the service line to close out the set.
In the third, LC State tied the set at 19, 20, 23 and 24 to extend the match, but Oregon Tech scored the next two points to win the match.
Faith Houck-Wylie led the Owls with 10 kills, while Brooke Cassidy (13 assists) and Lindsey Beck (12 assists) teamed up to fuel the offense. Aubrey Kievit and Lindsey Sampson each chipped in 16 digs.
On the other side of the net, Tori Edwards led the Warriors with 10 kills, while Hannah Martinez had 16 assists and Jess Ruffing added another 10 assists. Kenzie Dean finished with 11 digs to keep her team in the match.
In the second match, both teams were in it to win it. The five-set thriller had 40 ties and 14 lead changes – including 14 ties and five lead changes in the first set alone – and a combined 26 extra points. LC State pulled out the marathon match 3-2 (31-29, 16-25, 28-30, 25-16, 20-18) to settle for a split on the day with OIT.
Jada Wyms was unstoppable for the Warriors in the victory with 23 kills on 42 attempts (.452). Chloe Emory tallied 18, and Edwards and Carli Berntson had 15 and 14 kills, respectively. Martinez dished out a career-high 36 assists, while Ruffing dealt 30.
Once again, Houck-Wylie led the Owls with 17 kills, while Ashley Ripplinger contributed 12 kills and Nicole Reyes finished with 12. Cassidy dished out 30 assists, while Beck finished with 24. Kievit came up with 21 digs, while Sampson added another 14 to keep the Owls in it.
No. 13 Corban (6-0, 6-0 CCC) vs. Multnomah (0-6, 0-6 CCC)
After a week hiatus from competition, Corban picked right back up where it left off and grabbed back-to-back three-set victories (25-12, 25-12, 25-22 and 25-14, 25-7, 25-21) on Friday. With the wins, Corban moves to 6-0 in CCC play and has won 18 of the 19 sets it has played in the 2021 spring campaign.
The Warriors came out fired up and won the first two sets 25-12, before Multnomah put up a fight in the third. The Lions tied the third set up at 20-20, but Corban would pull away with a 5-2 run to grab the set 25-22 and take the match.
Corban opened with a .522 hitting percentage, with Avari Ridgway leading the charge with a .524 clip and a game-high 13 kills. Rylee Troutman had four of the Warriors’ nine aces in the match, while Jadyn Mullen helped fuel the offense and finished with 18 assists. Kealani Ontai finished the match with 10 digs.
Danae Stokes led Multnomah with 11 kills, with Rachel Bailey dishing out 20 assists. Alyssa Mehalovich kept the Lions in the match defensively with a game-high 15 digs.
The second match had a similar theme with Multnomah putting up a fight in the third to try to extend the match. After Corban won the first two on scores of 25-14 and 25-7, respectively, the Warriors couldn’t quite seem to shake the Lions in the third.
After going down by four, 11-7, Multnomah scrapped to tie the set at 17-17 off a Warrior error and then took the lead on the next point off a kill from Jahnay Jardine. Corban called a timeout and tried to regroup but couldn’t quite catch itself until Ridgway sparked a 5-1 run to seal the 25-21 set win to end the match in favor of the Warriors.
CCC Standings
After the first three days of conference competition, two teams remain undefeated (6-0) in both conference and overall play: No. 8 EOU and No. 13 Corban. Bushnell sits in third with a 4-2 conference record, while Oregon Tech and LC State each boast 3-3 conference marks. College of Idaho sits in the No. 6 spot, while Multnomah and Warner Pacific are tied for the final spot in the standings.