ASHLAND – In a regular-season finale loaded with playoff implications, the No. 21-ranked Southern Oregon volleyball team met the moment with a lights-out sweep of No. 25 Bushnell on Saturday evening at Lithia Motors Pavilion.
The teams were tied in the Cascade Conference standings before the Raiders' 25-16, 25-14, 25-21 win, with which they clinched the No. 4 seed in the CCC Championships presented by U.S. Bank to earn a bye in Tuesday's play-in round.
The Raiders (21-9 overall, 13-7 CCC) will go straight to the eight-team tournament's final site for Thursday's quarterfinals; it'll be hosted by College of Idaho if the Yotes beat eighth-place Walla Walla (Wash.) later tonight or Eastern Oregon if they lose.
The win, which was the Raiders' fourth against a Top 25 opponent, was also a significant sweetener for their NAIA National Tournament resume. They figure to be safely in as an at-large team.
Six weeks after Bushnell (17-10, 12-8) dismissed them in straight sets in Eugene, they clamped down defensively to sink the Beacons to their second-worst attacking average of the season (.057). They only trailed for two points, both early in the first set.
Annie Hite became the seventh player in Raider history to reach the 2,500-assist milestone, dishing out 19 while helping right-side hitter
Friley Curtiss to 11 kills on 27 swings and
Briella Mathis to nine.
Duda Leite, SOU's second right-side, added nine more kills thanks to the work of
Isabelle Foote (15 assists).
On the defensive side, the Raiders were out-blocked by a margin of 11-6 but held down the back row behind libero
Maelle Garon (13 digs) and
Perseis Rosas-Suenishi (8 digs) in her spot start.
The Beacons mustered their second-lowest point total of the season, but they still got strong efforts from Amyah Semau, who had 10 kills, and Soleil Sands, who was part of nine blocks.
SOU's quarterfinal opponent will be decided following the play-in round. The semifinals are slated for Friday and the championship for next Saturday.
