BOX SCORE

CALDWELL, Idaho – Southern Oregon won its third consecutive five-set match Friday afternoon as the 12th-ranked Raiders defeated Eastern Oregon 3-2 (27-29, 25-19, 25-21, 18-25, 15-13) in a Cascade Collegiate Conference tournament semi-final contest at the J.A. Albertson Activities Center.

The Raiders, 20-4 overall, defeat EOU in five sets for the second consecutive match after the teams closed out the regular season in Ashland last Saturday. Eastern Oregon falls to 17-11 overall this season.

Southern Oregon will face the winner of tonight's match between regular-season champion No. 8 College of Idaho and fourth-seeded Northwest in the CCC championship match Saturday at 3 p.m. (M.S.T.). The winner of that match will earn the conference's automatic bid to the NAIA Tournament.

Eastern Oregon hit .327 in the opening set to take a 29-27 victory. The Mountaineers took an early five-point lead at 9-4 on a pair of kills by Katie Keeney, but the Raiders battled back to tie it up at 14-14 on a kill by Liz Madden (Manson, Wash./Manson). Southern Oregon continued its run to take a 19-16 lead, but a few points later EOU used a 5-0 run to regain a two-point advantage at 22-20.

The Mountaineers earned a match-point advantage on Alisha Crane's kill to go up 24-22, but SOU took the next two points to tie it up. Eastern Oregon again earned match point on a kill by Rebecca Haight before a pair of SOU points gave the Raiders the chance to earn the set victory. Another Crane kill tied it up at 26-26, and after a kill by Natalie Scheller (Bend, Ore./Bend) made it 27-26, EOU fought off set point with a kill by Katie Showers and closed out the opener with back-to-back kills by Jessica Lea.

In the second set, SOU took an early four-point lead at 7-3 before EOU worked its way back to within one at 12-11. The Raiders responded with a 6-2 run to earn a five-point advantage at 18-13. After the Mountaineers pulled within three on kills by Showers and Lea, the Raiders picked up three-straight points and clinched the 25-19 set win on a kill by Megan Bartling (Medford, Ore./North Medford).

Eastern Oregon took a four-point lead at 11-7 in the third set before SOU tied it up at 13-13 on a pair of EOU attack errors. The Raiders earned their first lead of the set when a Holgen kill made it 17-16, and the Raiders eventually used a four-point streak to take a 22-18 lead. The teams exchanged points through the end of the set, with Scheller closing it out with a kill to make it 25-21.

Southern Oregon scored five of the first seven points in the fourth set before Eastern Oregon put together an eight-point streak to take an 11-7 lead. The Raiders would never get back in it, as the Mountaineers used another four-point streak to take a 21-14 lead and pulled away to the 25-18 set victory to force a fifth set.

Neither team led by more than two points throughout the final set. Southern Oregon took an early 5-3 lead, but EOU used kills by Showers and Lea and back-to-back service aces to turn the two-point deficit into a 7-5 advantage. Following an SOU timeout, the Raiders scored three of the next four points to tie it up at 8-8.

With SOU leading 11-10, Eastern scored three points in a row to take a 13-11 lead. The Raiders battled back with four consecutive points on a kill by Scheller, two EOU attack errors and a match-clinching kill by Holgen to earn the set-and-match victory, 15-13.

Four Raiders finished with double-digit kills, led by Holgen's 21. Scheller added 17, with Haley Fikso tallying 12 and Bartling posting 10. Caryn Westrick (Bonney Lake, Wash./Bonney Lake) led SOU with 38 assists with Angela Spieker (Bremerton, Wash./Central Kitsap) contributed 28, and Becky Johnstone (Lake Arrowhead, Calif./Rim of the World) finished with 23 digs to lead a group of four Raiders with double-figures in the dig column.

Lea finished with a match-high 23 kills on a .457 attack percentage, with 31 assists and 15 digs to earn the triple-double. Haight finished with 14 kills and Showers added 10. Emily Sampson led the Mountaineers with 37 assists and added 16 digs, while Kaitlyn Duncan posted a match-high 32 digs.