ASHLAND – Friley Curtiss' star kept rising in Southern Oregon's 25-21, 25-19, 24-26, 25-14 win against Northwest (Wash.) on Saturday at Lithia Motors Pavilion, where the sophomore right-side hitter delivered more kills than any Raider in 14 years.

The No. 21-ranked Eagles had no answer for Curtiss as she dropped in 26 kills on 42 attempts. Curtiss, a 6-foot-1 product of North Bend, Wash., committed only three errors to finish with an eye-popping attacking average of .548. She assisted three blocks, too.

With the score tied at 21 in the first set, she had three kills down the stretch to close it out. She registered nine in the third alone and put the Eagles away with eight more in the fourth.

"Friley wanted the ball all night, she was demanding it, and obviously (setter Annie Hite) obliged and there were great results," SOU coach Josh Rohlfing said. "To have nine kills in a set – that's unheard of, not something I can remember seeing often in my career. She stepped up in a big moment and really has all year."

The big performance made the Raiders 13-12 overall and 10-8 in the Cascade Conference, still tied for sixth place entering the final weekend of the regular season.

The Eagles (13-11, 7-11) – who became SOU's third NAIA Top 25 victim – lost their sixth match in a row. They'd won the teams' first meeting in four sets.

Maya Watters helped the Raiders get over the hump this time around with 16 kills. So did an impressive collective defensive effort led by Tais Vega (24 digs), Andressa Ribeiro Soares (16 digs, 12 kills) and Lanie Snow (6 blocks).

Curtiss' dominance left Hite with a career-high 38 assists to go with seven digs. Hite and Amanda Moffat (20 assists, 7 digs, 4 aces) set the Raiders up for a .266 team attacking average.

Northwest got 10 kills from both Aubree Dees and Delaney Sparks. SOU held the Eagles' top attacker, All-CCC outside hitter Kaitlyn Mickle, to five kills on 23 swings.

The Raiders have won five of their last six matches entering two more big tests, next Friday at No. 5 Corban and Saturday at No. 20 Bushnell. Both teams defeated SOU in Ashland during the first half of conference play.