ASHLAND – Somehow, considering the 10 match-points faced in a little over 24 hours, the No. 18-ranked Southern Oregon University volleyball team escaped the opening week of Cascade Conference play unscathed.
The Raiders fought off five of them on Friday against No. 12 Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) – a night after doing the same against Walla Walla (Wash.) – and stormed back for an 18-25, 24-26, 25-20, 30-28, 16-14 win at Lithia Motors Pavilion, their seventh in a row. It made them 10-2 overall and 2-0 in the CCC while ending a six-match, season-opening winning streak for the Warriors (6-1, 0-1).
Tessa Zimmermann shined again with 15 kills on 28 attacks and six blocks.
Maya Watters delivered 14 kills, including three with the Warriors needing one point to clinch. With SOU trailing 14-12 in the fifth set, Watters dropped in a kill that started a 4-0, match-ending run, capped by
Katie White's service ace and an LC State attacking error.
"We're a resilient group," SOU coach
Josh Rohlfing said. "We didn't have our best stuff, but for the last 3 ½ sets tonight we showed we're a very good team. That LC State team is fantastic, but we stepped up and were very adaptable.
The last time the Raiders had won five-set CCC matches on back-to-back nights was in 2018.
They lost a 2-0 sets lead on Thursday but had to overcome one on Friday. The Warriors left the door open in the third set with 12 errors – seven attacking, five in service – and SOU erased deficits of 25-24, 26-25, and 28-27 in the fourth. A Watters kill tied that frame for the last time and a block by
Briella Mathis and
Lanie Snow gave the Raiders the lead before a final Warriors error sent the teams to a tiebreaker.
It was there that LC State initially appeared to go up 14-11, but a replay-reversal gave
Friley Curtiss her 13th kill and the Raiders more life.
Annie Hite orchestrated a .234 SOU attack with 31 assists and came up big defensively with a career-high 16 digs.
Maelle Garon had 20 digs, Mathis recorded eight kills, and
Duda Leite chimed in with seven key kills and three blocks. Freshman setter
Isabelle Foote also came up big with 21 assists and five digs.
The Warriors overpowered early behind 18 kills from both Taylor Boyce and Mikale Roy. Hadyn Smith added 13, and Addison Wilson was in on seven of their 11 blocks.
The Top 25 win was the Raiders' first of the season. They'll get cracks at a couple more next week, when they go on the road to face No. 1 Eastern Oregon and No. 9 College of Idaho.
