KIRKLAND, Wash. – Concerns about her availability after sustaining an ankle injury on Friday night were emphatically quelled by Southern Oregon outside hitter
Mylena Testoni in the junior's most well-rounded performance of the year against Northwest (Wash.).
The No. 22-ranked Raiders completed a sweep of their first Cascade Conference road trip in four sets on Saturday evening at Brodin Pavilion: 25-19, 15-25, 25-9, 25-17. In their ninth consecutive victory, Testoni totaled season-highs of 15 kills and 19 digs, becoming the first Raider to record at least 15 of each since 2014.
At 10-1 overall and 4-0 in the CCC, the Raiders are off to their best start since winning the conference title in 2019. Over the course of 24 hours they handily defeated two teams against whom they went winless a year ago.
Testoni, who did her damage on a .419 clip, got ample help in the attack from
Hailey Van Well. The sophomore had five kills in each of the lopsided third and fourth sets and put down her last eight without an error to finish with 16.
The Raider defense was equally up to the task in holding the Eagles (6-6, 2-3) to their lowest attacking average of the year at .038 and just four service aces.
Kayla Neidigh had 18 digs,
Trinity Atuatasi had 10, and
Gwen Sheldon put up 18 assists, eight digs and four aces.
At the net,
Sadie Byrd assisted five blocks and Van Well was in on three.
The Raiders collectively hit .200.
Hannah Randall helped steer the attack with 19 assists and six digs.
Katie Vroman contributed six kills and
Hannah Stadstad chipped in five.
Susana Bailey and Kaitlyn Mickle led the Eagles with seven kills each but also combined for 12 errors.
After falling flat in the second set, SOU jumped out to leads of 9-3 in the third and 10-4 in the fourth.
The Raiders are back for a three-match homestand next week, starting with Oregon Tech at 6 p.m. Wednesday. They'll face Bushnell and No. 5-ranked Corban over the weekend. All three teams were picked ahead of them in the CCC preseason poll.