EUGENE – The Southern Oregon volleyball team looked playoff-ready while ending the Cascade Conference regular season with another upset on Saturday night.
The Raiders made No. 20-ranked Bushnell their latest victim by stealing a 25-20, 15-25, 25-27, 25-19, 15-10 win at the Morse Center. Junior outside hitter
Maya Watters starred with 17 kills on 26 tries and
Andressa Ribeiro Soares put up 15 kills and 21 digs.
The Raiders (14-13 overall, 11-9 CCC) knocked off one NAIA Top 25 opponent in each of the last three weeks of the season, including two on the road. They went 7-3 in the second half of conference play after going 4-6 during the first half.
The latest performance guaranteed them sixth place in the standings. Walla Walla (Wash.) is a win behind the Raiders entering its finale Sunday at first-place Eastern Oregon: If WWU loses, SOU will host the Wolves in Tuesday's play-in round of the CCC Tournament. If WWU pulls off a shocker, the Raiders will visit the Wolves.
SOU had lost to Bushnell (19-11, 13-7) in four sets on Sept. 26 in Ashland and was on the verge of doing it again on Saturday, trailing 11-6 in the fourth before ending the frame with a 19-8 surge. Ribeiro Soares fueled the run with five kills.
The fifth set was all Raiders as they jumped out to an 8-3 lead and never looked back, getting five kills from Watters in the tiebreaker.
Tais Vega came through with 18 digs – along with five assists and three aces – and
Katie White stepped in to corral a season-high 11.
Friley Curtiss went for 11 kills and assisted six blocks, while
Lanie Snow had five and four.
Annie Hite chimed in with 28 assists.
Bushnell's top attackers, Leah Agost and Hailey Heider, combined for 27 kills but also accumulated 18 attacking errors. The Beacons were held to a .157 attacking average.