The 14th-ranked Southern Oregon had leads in all three sets before falling to 12th-ranked Embry-Riddle 26-24, 25-22, 25-23 tonight in the opener of pool play at the NAIA Volleyball National Championships in Sioux City, Iowa.
The Raiders (23-4) now faces top-ranked and unbeaten Lee (35-0) tomorrow at 3:45 (PST) in a must-win match. The top two teams out of each four-team pool advance to bracket play.
Sarah Holgen (Honolulu, Hawaii/Ashland) led the Raiders with 16 kills.
Megan Bartling (Medford, Ore./North Medford) turned in 10 kills and
Lindsey Stone (Ashland, Ore./Ashland) had 41 assists.
Abby Hall had 19 kills and only two errors to lead the Eagles.
In the opening set, the Raiders jumped out to leads to 3-1 and 7-3 and led 13-9 on a kill by Holgen. Three-straight kills by
Lauren Swetland (Cottonwood, Calif./West Valley), Holgen and
Leah Bergstrom (West Linn, Ore./West Linn) gave the Raiders a 21-18 advantage, but the Eagles came back with four straight points for a 22-21 lead.
SOU held off one set point to tie it at 24-24 before Taylor Martin and Gloria Kemp put the set away with kills.
In the second set, the Raiders rallied to take a 13-11 lead on a Bergstrom kill and a 14-12 lead on a kill by
Leanne Stennett (Encinitas, Calif./San Dieguito). A Holgen kill and back-to-back Embry attack errors gave the Raiders their biggest lead of the set at 19-16. The Eagles came back with three straight points to tie the set at 19-19 and then tied it again at 20-20 and 21-21 before closing out the set.
In the third set, the Raiders rallied from a 16-13 deficit to take a 17-16 lead thanks to a pair of Bartling kills. The Eagles tried to pull away at 20-18, but SOU was not going to go down quietly.
An Embry attack error tied the set at 20-20, a kill by Holgen tied it at 21-21 and another Holgen kill tied it at 22-22 before Embry scored three of the final four points to close out the match.
Swetland finished with three blocks, while Stennett had 18 digs and
Becky Johnstone (Lake Arrowhead, Calif./Rim of the World) had 17 digs.
