EUGENE, Ore. – With the offense taking a slight backseat for once, it was the defense of the No. 6-ranked Corban University Volleyball team that stepped up and allowed the Warriors to retake sole possession of the top spot in the Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) with a four-set road victory over Bushnell University, 25-20, 25-21, 24-26, and 25-12. With the win, the Warriors break a tie atop the CCC standings and now hold a half-game lead over No. 3-ranked Eastern Oregon University.
When asked to comment on her team's performance tonight, Corban head coach Kim McLain shared, "I was proud of our defense both at the net and in the back court tonight! We have been working on making defense a priority and it was evident in the match. I'm proud of how they presented themselves and adjusted on the fly in certain situations that Bushnell was presenting us with."
The stretch of a difficult second half had clearly started to weigh heavily on the Warriors (19-3, 13-1), as the Beacons (11-7, 9-5) quickly jumped out to an 8-3 lead with most of Bushnell's points coming on attacking errors from Corban, forcing Coach McLain into calling an early timeout.
However, the timeout proved to be well timed by McLain, as the front court suddenly sprang to action and rattled off multiple blocks on the Beacons' attacks. While the offense still hadn't clearly awakened, the defense was providing enough coverage to keep the Navy and Gold in a tight set score.
While the offense continued to struggle, the Warriors had the benefit of playing exceptional defense to keep Bushnell from taking advantage of their porous kill percentage, logging five blocks in the first set alone to take a 25-20 first set win in a period where both programs just couldn't find their groove offensively.
Defense continued to be the focal point in this contest heading into the second set, but this time coming from the hometown team that sent back multiple Warrior attacks and took a slight three-point lead at 12-9 and send Coach McLain into another early timeout situation. Despite their slight deficit, Corban dug deep and found another way to win the second set 25-21, as junior outside hitter Rylee Troutman caught fire to end the set with four of the Warriors' five kills after a slow start offensively for the All-American.
Despite jumping out to a 19-10 lead in the third set, the Warriors grew cold both offensively and defensively to allow the Beacons to climb their way back into a set once again, allowing multiple set points to fall in favor of Bushnell. Using their home crowd and some nifty mechanics, the Beacons stormed back to take the third set 26-24 and deny Corban a road rivalry sweep.
A momentum shift was exactly the opposite of what Coach McLain and the Warrior Faithful in attendance that night had in mind after gutting out back-to-back sets to start the match, as the Beacons were now eyeing a reverse sweep on their home court over the sixth ranked team in the NAIA who also happened to be their travel partner and conference rival.
With the energy in the gym shifted in favor of Bushnell, it was to everyone's surprise as the Navy and Gold sprinted to an 8-1 lead and never looked back, taking the most lopsided set result of the night 25-12 featuring a nine-point run and launching the Warriors into first place in the CCC all by themselves once again.
After a relatively slow start for the junior from Powell Butte, Troutman turned on the after burners to lead all student-athletes tonight with 15 kills on a .238 attacking clip, adding five digs in the backcourt. The middle blocking duo of Allyson Reid and Emma Bischoff had everything working both offensively and defensively, as they each added 11 kills and only seven attacking errors between the two of them.
The assisting duo of sophomore setter Abby Guindy and freshman setter Nadeiah Howard had themselves a night as they dealt out 51 of Corban's 53 team assists, with Guindy holding the game-high mark of 28 and Howard right behind her with 23, eight of which came in the fourth set alone. Guindy managed the only double-double of the match with eleven digs in the backcourt, her fourth of the season and first since the beginning of CCC play.
Bischoff was a force to be reckoned with at the net this evening, as the Medford product sent back eight block assists and a solo stuff at the net to be involved in over half of the Warriors' total blocks in the match. Meanwhile in the backcourt, junior libero Marissa Uehara logged a game-high 18 digs while junior defensive specialist Graci Zanona was right behind her with 17 digs on her own.
Uehara and Howard led the team in serve-receive tonight to the tune of four and three aces, respectively, with Uehara posting a perfect outing from the service line of zero errors and the game-high mark.
In the Beacons' efforts, outside hitter and Amyah Semau and opposite hitter Matty Ladd each tallied eight kills and setters Katie Belitz and Elijah Sanders dealt out 16 and 13 dimes. Libero Bella Parque was the team leader in digs with 17, while defensive specialist Laci Jespersen was right behind with nine as well.
The Navy and Gold return home to the C.E. Jeffers Sports Center for the first and only weekend in October this upcoming Friday and Saturday, as they'll host Walla Walla University (1-14, 1-13) and Lewis-Clark State College (7-12, 6-8). Their bout with the Wolves will start earlier than usual at 2pm, while the Saturday matchup with their conference mascot twins will start at 5pm.
Follow Corban Athletics:
Facebook l Twitter l Instagram l Snapchat l YouTube l Email
Download our App: iOS (iPhone/iPad) l Android
