BOX SCORE

SALEM, Ore. – On the final home night of the regular season, Corban's women's volleyball team dropped a three-set heart-breaker to the visiting Geoducks of The Evergreen State College, 3-0 (23-25, 8-25, 22-25), Saturday inside the C.E. Jeffers Sports Center.

Corban (7-20, 3-13 CCC) honored four seniors – Jenny Harman, Alex Matulewicz, Olivia Shropshire, and Brittany Sweet – during the 10-minute break between the second and third set thanking them for their work over the past few seasons with the program. The quartet combined for 11 kills, four assists, five service aces, 19 digs, and one block against the Geoducks. On the other hand, Evergreen (6-15, 5-11 CCC) accomplished a program first tonight with the Geoducks earning their first-ever weekend sweep in conference play led by Victoria Love's match-high 19 kills on 30 swings.

The Warriors were led offensively by junior Claire Bailey with eight kills, as the third-year Warrior closed out the weekend with a combined 24 kills in Corban's final two home matches of the season against Northwest and Evergreen. Shropshire would chip in offensively with six kills, while three Warriors – Harman, junior Miah Smith, and freshman Payton Wilcox – added four kills each. Freshman setter Haley Meili led the Warriors with 13 assists, while Sweet anchored Corban's defense with a team-best 11 digs to go along with a four-block performance by freshman Madison Purnell.

Along with Love, Evergreen got seven kills from Natimia Barker-Doss and six kills by Cassidy Watkins. Kelsey Delagrange handed out a match-high 33 assists, while Watkins led all players with 14 digs. At the net, Brittany Covert provided a match-high five blocks to go along with a team-high three service aces by Meredith Gurr.

The opening set was a back-and-forth battle for the first 34 combined points, as neither teams gained more than a two-point lead. Evergreen would break a 17-17 tie with a quick 4-0 run that was bookended by a pair of service aces by Brandee Victorino resulting in a 21-17 lead for the visitors. Corban would fight back to tie the set at 22-22 thanks to a 5-1 run that concluded on back-to-back service aces from Shropshire, who ended the night with a match-high four aces. The two teams would trade points with the set knotted at 23-all before Evergreen scored the final two points on a combo block by Love and Covert followed by a set-ending kill by Love for the 25-23 victory.

Set #2 would belong to Evergreen from the start, as the Geoducks scored the opening three points before extended their lead to 15 points (19-4) on a kill by Barker-Doss. Corban would get as close as 12 points (20-8) before Evergreen scored the final five points on the serve of Delagrange for the 25-8 victory.

The third and final set would see Corban build an early 8-1 lead thanks to the serving of Shropshire and Meili, as the host Warriors continued to hold the lead at 15-8 on a combo block by Purnell and Shropshire before Evergreen began its comeback. Over the next 15 combined points, Evergreen would use an 11-4 run to tie things at 19-19 before the two teams traded points resulting in a 21-21 tie on a kill by Shropshire. The visiting Geoducks would jump ahead by two points (23-21) on kills by Delagrange and Watkins before Corban scored its final point of the night on a service error by ESC. A pair of miscues by the Warriors would close out the match, as Evergreen earned the 25-22 win and three-set sweep over a CCC opponent for the first time since 2008.

Overall, Corban hit .078 (29-21-102) compared to Evergreen's .297 (39-9-101).

Corban returns to action for its next-to-last match of the season on Friday, November 8th, against No. 10-ranked Eastern Oregon beginning at 7;00 p.m. in La Grande.