brownsville
Photo courtesy of Columbia Sports Information.
3
Winner Texas at Brownsville UTB 31-4
0
Southern Oregon SOU 24-6
Winner
Texas at Brownsville UTB
31-4
3
Final
0
Southern Oregon SOU
24-6
Set Scores
Team 1 2 3 F
Texas at Brownsville UTB 25 25 27 (3)
Southern Oregon SOU 19 13 25 (0)

Game Recap: Volleyball | | SOU Sports Information

Defending champ Texas Brownsville humbles SOU

SIOUX CITY, Iowa – Defending NAIA champion Texas Brownsville overwhelmed Southern Oregon early and hung on late for a 25-19, 25-13, 27-25 win Wednesday afternoon in the second match of pool play for both teams at the Tyson Events Center.

The fourth-ranked Ocelots (31-4), who will not exist after this season as their school merges with Texas-Pan American, used their size to sink the 17th-ranked Raiders (24-6) to an .080 attacking average – their second-lowest of the season. Four Brownsville players had six or more kills, led by Bojana Mitrovic's 10.

The Ocelots clinched a berth in the NAIA Championships' single-elimination bracket with the win, as they also swept 21st-ranked Vanguard on Tuesday.

SOU defeated Columbia in four sets on Tuesday and can still reserve a spot among the final 12 by defeating Vanguard on Thursday in a match that starts at 11 a.m. Pacific Time. Vanguard, ranked No. 21, is also 1-1 after getting swept by Brownsville on Tuesday and sweeping Columbia on Wednesday. The Raiders beat the Lions in straight sets on Aug. 22.

The Raiders looked primed to put in another upset bid when Paulla Pinheiro (Fortaleza, Brazil/Colegio Farias Brito) served them to the first four points of the day, but they were just as quickly in a 12-7 hole they couldn't climb out of. It got worse in the second set, where SOU hit negative-.063.

SOU sharpened up in the third set and led 24-21, but didn't capitalize on any of its four set-point opportunities.

"We played very tight – tried to win the match before we played it," SOU coach Josh Rohlfing said. "We settled down in the third set and started to get a rhythm."

Emma Gasman (Clovis, Calif./Buchanan) recorded eight kills, six assisted blocks and five digs for the Raiders. Motade Atanda (San Jose, Calif./Presentation) had 10 kills (but as many errors on 34 swings) and four blocks, and Pinheiro finished with six kills and 10 digs.

Third-ranked Concordia-Irvine had been responsible for the only previous sweep of SOU this season on Aug. 22.

The Ocelots hit .215 as a team, the second-best mark of any opponent against SOU. Tina Sekulic had 32 assists.
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