BOX SCORE

LA GRANDE, Ore. – On an emotional weekend for the host Mountaineers, senior Tiffany Land (Independence, Ore.) registered a match-high 17 kills for Corban women's volleyball team that fell in four sets, 3-1 (17-25, 25-23, 13-25, 18-25), to Eastern Oregon Saturday inside Quinn Coliseum.

Paying tribute to its former head coach Hailey Pearce, who died tragically in a car accident this summer, and also raising awareness about breast cancer with "Block Out Cancer Weekend," Eastern Oregon picked up the victory to stay within one game of first place in the Cascade Collegiate Conference standings.

For Corban, Land was the lone bright spot collecting her season-high total in kills to go along with seven kills by freshman Claire Bailey (Santa Rosa, Calif.) and a pair of five-kill performances from sophomore Olivia Shropshire (Gresham, Ore.) and freshman Kayla Ping (Springfield, Ore.). Senior Megan Dees (Tehachapi, Calif.) recorded her seventh double-double of the conference season with a team-high 21 assists and 10 digs, while sophomore libero Bethany Durre (Bend, Ore.) anchored the visiting Warriors' defense with a team-high 18 digs to go along with three blocks by Bailey.

In the opening set would be a back-and-forth battle over the opening 16 combined points until the score was knotted at 8-8 following a kill by Shropshire. Unfortunately for the Warriors, Eastern Oregon would use a 6-2 run en route to securing a four-point lead (14-10) on a kill by Katie Showers. The host Mountaineers would push their lead to as much as eight points (23-15) on a Rebecca Haight kill before Eastern Oregon settled for the eight-point win (25-17) and an early 1-0 lead in sets.

Set #2 would be a dog fight until the score was knotted at 23-all on an Eastern Oregon hitting error.  Not wanting to go quietly into the night, Corban scored the final two points on a Mountaineer attack error and a set-closing Ping kill for the two-point win (25-23) that evened the match at a set-apiece.

The third set belonged to Eastern Oregon, as the Mountaineers jumped out to a quick six-point lead (7-1) on a combo block by Stefani Sorensen and Alisha Crane. EOU would continue to apply pressure pushing its lead to double digits at 19-9 before continually providing an offensive punch that eventually knocked the Warriors out winning by 12 points (25-13).

Set #4 was a see-saw affair until the score was knotted at 10-all, as Eastern Oregon then used a 10-3 run to grab a seven-point lead (20-13) on a combo block by Showers and Lindsey Bohard. Despite Corban battling back to within eight points (25-18), it was too little, too late as Eastern Oregon won the final set and took the match in four sets.

EOU's Crane would lead the Mountaineers' offense with 13 kills, while Showers and Jessica Lea added 11 and 10 kills, respectively. Lea would register a triple-double with 10 kills, 19 assists, and 14 digs to go along with Emily Sampson's match-high 30 assists. Defensively, Kaitlyn Duncan, who became Eastern Oregon's all-time career leader in digs last night, tallied a match-high 23 digs to go along with a match-high four-block performance for Crane.

With tonight's result, Corban falls to 8-11 overall and 2-9 in Cascade Collegiate Conference matches. Meanwhile, Eastern Oregon improves to 12-7 overall and 10-1 in league action. The Warriors will return to action on Friday, October 14th, against the Cavaliers of Concordia beginning at 7:00 p.m. inside Cavalier Gymnasium in Portland.