SALEM – If there were any lingering doubts about Southern Oregon's candidacy for an NAIA National Tournament bid, they were swiftly eradicated Friday in a five-set upset of No. 6-ranked Corban at the C.E. Jeffers Center.
The No. 16 Raiders (24-5 overall, 17-4 Cascade Conference) won their ninth consecutive match by scores of 18-25, 25-23, 25-14, 17-25 and 15-9. The winning streak is their longest in CCC play since 2019, and it is active at an ideal time with postseason play a week away.
The Raiders were in desperate need of a résumé booster, having only collected one Top 25 victory before Friday – a straight-setter in their first match up the season against then-No. 25 Jessup (Calif.), which has since proved middling with a .500 record. They lost a 2-1 set lead to Corban (24-5, 18-3) the first time through conference play, but this time knocked out the Warriors behind
Hannah Stadstad's 16 kills and
Marin Mackey's 14 kills and 15 digs.
SOU hit .259 as a team against Corban, which had held CCC opponents to a collective .071 average entering the night. The Raiders also did an admirable job slowing down Rylee Troutman, the reigning NAIA Attacker of the Year. Troutman needed 59 swings to reach 16 kills, and committed eight attacking errors for a .136 average – the lowest of any Warrior to attack more than twice.
Tessa Zimmerman and
Sadie Byrd solidified SOU's presence at the net, the former with six assisted blocks and the latter with five. Byrd also totaled nine kills, and
Kayla Neidigh had 15 digs.
The Raiders rang up eight kills without an error in the tiebreaker set, three of them by Mackey. Three straight points gave them a 5-3 lead they never relinquished.
Their setters were stellar again in multiple facets.
Vitoria Mattos recorded 23 assists and 10 digs, and
Annie Hite had 26 assists and six digs.
The Raiders play their final match of the regular season 5 p.m. Saturday at Bushnell. They're locked into the No. 3 seed for next week's CCC Tournament, but if they win and Oregon Tech defeats Corban, they'd finish in a tie for second place.
