ASHLAND – Marin Mackey, Carol Melo and Hannah Stadstad combined for 46 kills on the pins as No. 17 Southern Oregon narrowly avoided a fifth set against Bushnell in a 25-9, 21-25, 25-16, 29-27 win Friday at Lithia Motors Pavilion.

The Raiders' block helped them take a marathon fourth frame, where they erased a five-point deficit, fought off two sets points and were denied on three of their own. They had 12 blocks on the night, and Melo and Tessa Zimmerman teamed up for one to tie the fourth at 24-24 before Stadstad and Sadie Byrd later joined forces for another to clinch the match.

The Raiders (14-2 overall, 7-1 CCC) have won six in a row entering Saturday's 7 p.m. match against first-place and No. 4-ranked Corban. They dropped the Beacons (8-4, 6-2) out of what had been a three-way tie for second place when the evening began, prevailing for the ninth time in the teams' last 10 head-to-head matchups.

Mackey (17 kills) and Stadstad (16 kills) had the loudest swings in the latest and made their noise efficiently on 68 combined swings. Mackey also recorded career-highs of 14 digs and five blocks, and Stadstad assisted three blocks of SOU's 12.

Byrd, who ranks third in the NAIA in blocks per set (1.5), assisted seven more and helped SOU rattle the Beacons in the first set as they attacked at a negative-.118 average.

They recovered in the second but the Raiders ran away with the third, where Mackey and Stadstad tallied four kills apiece.

SOU hit .275 on the night thanks in large part to the steady work of setters Vitoria Mattos (27 assists, 7 digs) and Annie Hite (25 assists, 10 digs). Melo finished with 13 kills and Megan Perry had nine, while Kayla Neidigh led the match with 19 digs.

Matty Ladd finished with 11 kills and Halle Neumann with 10 for the Beacons, who also got seven assisted blocks from Brooklynn Dechent.