BOX SCORE

EUGENE, Ore. – The first half of the Cascade Collegiate Conference schedule came to a close Friday, as Corban's women's volleyball team was swept by rival Northwest Christian, 3-0 (27-29, 12-25, 17-25), inside the Morse Event Center.

With tonight's result, Corban close the first go-around of league matches at 4-15 overall and 1-11 in CCC play. On the other hand, Northwest Christian improves to 13-5 overall and post its the best first-half CCC record in program history at 6-3.

Senior Olivia Shropshire led the Warriors' offense with a match-high tying 12 kills, while juniors Claire Bailey and Miah Smith added eight and five kills, respectively. Freshman Haley Meili handed out a team-high 14 assists for Corban, while junior Katherine Salness led the Warriors' defense with 14 digs. At the net, the freshman duo of Madison Purnell and Payton Wilcox tallied four blocks each for Corban.

The opening set would see Northwest Christian jump out to a three-point lead (4-1) before the host Beacons extended their lead to six points (16-10). Trailing by six points, Corban would use a 5-0 run behind the serving of Salness to pull within a single point (16-15) on kill by Smith. After a timeout by NCU, the Beacons used a 6-1 run to go back ahead by six points (22-16) before Corban used a 9-2 to go ahead by one point (25-24) on a combo block by Purnell, Wilcox, and Bailey. Unfortunately, Corban could not capitalize on its first set point and Northwest Christian would fend off two set points before scoring the final two points for the hard-fought 29-27 victory.

Set #2 would belong to Northwest Christian from the beginning, as the Beacons extended a two-point lead (5-3) to eight points (18-10) with a 13-7 run that concluded with a kill by Janel Fetters. The Warriors would get as close as six points (18-12) before Northwest Christian closed out the set on a 7-0 run to grab the 25-12 victory.

The third and final set saw NCU pull ahead by four points (5-1) before Corban used a 3-0 run to get within one point (5-4) on combo block by senior Jenny Harman and Bailey. From that point, Northwest Christian used an 8-3 run to go ahead by six points (13-7) before the host Beacons extended that lead to a set-closing eight points (25-17) on a kill by Maren Mansfield that concluded the match in three straight sets.

Manfield and Fetters led Northwest Christian with 12 and 10 kills, respectively, while Chelsea McGowen and Chandler Gabrio added nine kills each. Cori Wallace would hand out a match-high 37 assists for the Beacons, while Dana McGowan anchored NCU's defense with a match-high 22 digs.

Corban will return to action on Friday, October 11th, against the Knights of Warner Pacific beginning at 7:00 p.m. inside the C.E. Jeffers Sports Center in Salem.