ASHLAND – Southern Oregon didn't flinch while staring down match point three times in the Opening Round of the NAIA Volleyball Championships. Considering the adversity they'd already met this season, the Raiders were well prepared.
To the delight of a raucous crowd, SOU fought off William Jessup (Calif.) 20-25, 27-25, 25-15, 23-25, 17-15 on Saturday afternoon at Lithia Motors Pavilion to put itself among 24 NAIA teams left standing. The Raiders (22-10 overall) will make their 11th all-time trip to the tournament's final site, the Tyson Events Center in Sioux City, Iowa, and begin pool play on Nov. 30.
Hailey Van Well, SOU's two-time all-conference outside hitter, turned in season-highs of 19 kills and 15 digs. The sophomore delivered six in the tiebreaker set, including the last two in a 3-0 run that ended the contest.
The Warriors – fresh off a Golden State Athletic Conference Tournament title – entered the matchup winners of 12 of their last 13. Making their first national tournament appearance, they lost leads of 24-23 in the second set and 14-12 in the fifth, ending their season at 17-10.
"This team showed a lot of resilience, and I'm super proud of how they handled themselves down 14-12," SOU head coach Josh Rohlfing said. "It showed we're starting to gain more faith in our own skills and trust in one another, and the stakes couldn't have been bigger when we did it."
Junior right-side hitter Simone Gordon came up clutch by matching a season-high with 14 kills. Carol Melo had nine kills and was in on nine of the Raiders' 16 blocks, their second-highest total of the fall.
With the Raiders in danger of going down 2-0, Melo supplied the spark in the second set with four kills and three blocks. They trailed 24-23 before a WJU attacking error and Melo's block with Katie Vroman gave them the lead. After the Warriors tied it on a Madalyn Miller kill, Melo answered with a spike of her own and Kayla Neidigh leveled the match with a service ace.
The teams traded blows in the third and fourth frames before SOU jumped out to a 9-6 lead in the fifth. A 6-1 Warriors run, featuring three Mata Iupeli kills and capped by Kenzie Carpenter's ace, put the Raiders on the brink. Down 14-12, Katie Vroman and Melo dropped in back-to-back kills to tie the score.
Taylor Tarble put WJU in match-point position again with an attack that made it 15-14, but Vroman kept the Raiders alive by painting the back line. Van Well then finished the job, getting the benefit of a blocking error called on the final point.
Vroman finished with 11 kills and Sadie Byrd had five kills and seven blocks. Taylor Jackson contributed three service aces, while Neidigh and Van Well had two apiece. Karina Oliveira led the back row with 24 digs, complemented by Neidigh's 13 and Taylor Russell's 12. Van Well's dig total of 15 was any many as she'd registered in her last eight matches combined.
Marina Gonzalez had 16 kills and Iupeli had 14 for the Warriors.
The Raiders – still standing despite losing four players to season-ending injuries, missing several others for weeks at a time, and forfeiting a couple matches due to COVID-19 protocols – will learn their draw when the final site pools are announced at 3 p.m. Sunday.
"What we've been talking about the last couple weeks is just continuing to improve," Rohlfing said. "We haven't run out a consistent lineup in practice of matches for the whole second half of the season and felt like we still had room to grow. I think we did today."