PORTLAND, Ore. – Senior Rachel Gowen (Oregon City, Ore.) registered a team-high 10 kills in helping lead Corban's women's volleyball team to a three-set sweep (25-21, 25-19, 25-23) over the Knights of Warner Pacific Friday night, as the Warriors captured the sixth and final playoff spot in the upcoming conference tournament.
With four matches remaining and a three-match lead on the Eagles of Northwest, the Warriors knew that a win tonight would seal up their first visit to the conference postseason tournament since 2004.
After hearing that The College of Idaho had swept Northwest in three sets, Corban knew that no matter what happened against the Knights that the Warriors were heading to the playoffs after a three-year drought.
Wanting to leave nothing to chance, Corban came out in the opening set and quickly built a 2-0 lead behind a WPC hitting error and a kill by senior Rashelle Davenport (Kalama, Wash.). Despite the host Knights using a 6-2 run to take a two-point lead (6-4), the Warriors continued to battle until taking the lead for good at 19-18 following a Warner Pacific service error. In the midst of set-closing 6-3 run, Corban got kills from Davenport and sophomore Teri Braun (Dallas, Ore.) en route to taking the opening set by four points (25-21).
In the second set, both teams battled over the first 16 combined points as the set was knotted at 8-all. Following a ball handling error by Warner Pacific, Corban used a 10-4 run that included three kills by Gowen, two by Davenport, and a solo Braun kill to take command of the middle set. Following a WPC time out, the host Knights attempted a comeback but it was too little, too late as Corban cruised to a six-point victory (25-19) in Set #2.
In the third and final set, Warner Pacific jumped out to a four-point advantage (10-6) before Corban used a 15-11 run to knot the set at 21-21. Back-to-back attack errors by the host Knights coupled with a service ace by junior Andrea Potloff (Aumsville, Ore.) gave Corban a three-point lead (24-21) and its first match point of the evening. Warner Pacific would fend off a pair of match points, only to have Gowen end the 104-minute affair with her 10th and final kill en route to handing the Warriors a two-point win (25-23) in Set #3 and the match victory in a three-set sweep.
Along with Gowen's team-high performance in kills, Davenport and fellow senior Chelsea Reeher (Powell Butte, Ore.) added 7 and 6 kills respectively to go along with freshman Tiffany Land's (Independence, Ore.) five-kill and Braun's four-kill performances. Junior setter Amy Thompson (Oregon City, Ore.) teamed with freshman setter Megan Dees (Tehachapi, Calif.) to handed out 26 assists, as Thompson led the Warriors' offense with 16. Meanwhile, sophomore libero Rebecca Franke (Pendleton, Ore.) anchored Corban's back row with a team-high 13 digs to go along with fellow sophomore Heather Anderson's (Corbett, Ore.) 12-dig and Potloff's 11-dig performances. At the net, Gowen led all players with four blocks to go along with Braun's two-block performance.
Warner Pacific was led by Kara Veach's match-high 13 kills, while former North Salem graduate Leah Gradwohl added six kills and 12 digs. Samantha Kolakowski handed out a match-high 24 assists, while Molly Webb anchored the Knights' back line with a match-high 14 digs.
With the win, Corban improves to 12-10 overall, including a 10-7 mark in conference play. Meanwhile, Warner Pacific falls to 6-13 overall, 4-13 in CCC action. The Warriors return to the court on Saturday, November 1st, when they hit the road for the final time during the regular season against the Thunderbirds of Cascade College beginning at 7:00 p.m. inside the Thunderdome.
