WALLA WALLA, Wash. – Southern Oregon completed a regular-season sweep of Walla Walla (Wash.) with considerably less resistance on Friday than the first time around in a 25-14, 25-22, 25-16 victory at the WWCC Dome.
The No. 22-ranked Raiders put their record at 15-6 overall and 7-4 in the Cascade Conference after turning in a season-best attacking average of .432 with 48 kills compared to nine errors. Their pins, freshman outside
Briella Mathis and junior right-side
Friley Curtiss, were the catalysts with 13 kills and 11 kills, respectively.
Five weeks earlier, the Wolves (3-10, 3-8) had pushed SOU to a tiebreaker set and got five cracks at match-point before falling in Ashland. In the second meeting, they got another admirable performance from one of the NAIA's top outside hitters, Sahara Browning (14 kills), but their defense wasn't up to the challenge at the net with just one block.
SOU senior
Annie Hite, the reigning CCC Setter of the Week, compiled 20 assists and five digs and has now helped the Raiders to their three best conference attacking marks of the season in consecutive matches.
Violeta Bachvarova (7 kills) and
Tessa Zimmermann (6) combined for six kills without an error.
Duda Leite chipped in six more and faltered on only one of her 11 attacks.
The Raiders were in control throughout the first and third sets. In the second, they erased a 17-13 deficit on the back of five Mathis kills.
Kaylie Christopher brought in a team-high eight digs.
The Raiders ended the day in a three-way tie for fourth place – one win back of third. They'll visit No. 20 Lewis-Clark State (Idaho), one of the other four-loss teams, at 4 p.m. Saturday.
