ASHLAND – Finally, the Southern Oregon volleyball team is over the fifth-set hump. It took some heavy lifting in the third and fourth frames, too, to get there.
On Saturday night at Lithia Motors Pavilion, the Raiders stormed back for a 24-26, 22-25, 25-15, 25-12, 15-12 win against Lewis-Clark State (Idaho), their first in five trips to the tiebreaker set during Cascade Conference play.
Simone Gordon had four kills in the final frame, including two as the Raiders turned around a 4-2 deficit with five straight points. After LC State trimmed a four-point lead to 14-12, Gordon clinched the match with another kill.
The right-side hitter wound up with 15 on the night, and libero
Kadyn Jones contributed her own late heroics with six of her 22 digs in the fifth to go with four service aces.
Hailey Van Well had a match-high 19 kills on 40 attacks,
Shelby Young added 11, and middle
Taylor Jackson came through in the clutch to register six kills on nine swings and four blocks.
With the win, the Raiders (11-8 overall, 6-8 CCC) completed a season sweep of the Warriors (11-10, 6-7) and moved to within 1 ½ matches of a top-six playoff spot in the CCC standings with eight still to play.
After opening flat, they turned around the match by siding out all 16 opportunities in the third set and 10-of-12 in the fourth. And after attacking at a .139 average through the first two sets, they combined for a .368 clip over the last three.
"We've been on the cusp of turning the corner for the past few weeks on these tight sets and matches," SOU coach
Josh Rohlfing said. "It's so nice to see this young group get rewarded for their commitment to effort day in and day out. It was a strong week for us and there were an incredible amount of strides made throughout the past couple of weeks."
For the Warriors, Grecia Ung Enriquez tallied 15 kills and Tori Edwards had 10 and four blocks. As a team, they hit at a .210 average but failed to close out a win in the fourth due to 10 attacking errors.
SOU will look to avenge a couple of early-season losses on the road next week at Evergreen (Wash.) and Northwest (Wash.), which both occupy top-six spots at 7-6.
