SALEM – Another back-and-forth matchup between No. 6-ranked Corban and No. 17 Southern Oregon went the Warriors' way in five sets on Saturday at the Jeffers Center.
Corban (12-5 overall, 5-3 Cascade Conference) ended the evening with an 8-2 surge to complete the 25-20, 20-25, 22-25, 25-19, 15-12 comeback, riding Gracee Robertson's 10 kills and 10 blocks.
The outcome spoiled
Friley Curtiss' season-high of 18 kills and
Annie Hite's 33-assist, 13-dig performance for the Raiders (12-6, 4-4).
It was the fifth time in the teams' last seven CCC meetings that they reached five sets, and Robertson took over the latest tiebreaker session. With the score tied 11-11, she went for a kill and assisted a block on back-to-back points. After Curtiss got the Raiders back within one, Robertson repeated the sequence to clinch the win.
Five of SOU's six losses have been at the hands of top-15 opponents. On the bright side, they'll only face one such team on the road the rest of the way and see three at home.
SOU middle
Lanie Snow had her most productive night of the year with eight kills on 16 attempts and six blocks.
Maelle Garon also came up big with 20 digs, eight assists and two service aces, while
Violeta Bachvarova put down 11 kills.
Kaylie Christopher contributed a career-high 16 digs, helping limit the Warriors to a .149 attacking average.
Robertson did her work efficiently on 21 swings. Emma Bischoff added 14 kills for Corban, which finished with 17 blocks and got 10 more assisted by Lauryn Copeland.
SOU returns to Lithia Motors Pavilion next weekend to finish the first half of the CCC schedule against Northwest (Wash.) on Friday and Evergreen (Wash.) on Saturday. Both matches start at 6 p.m.
