LA GRANDE, Ore. – A huge bounce-back rematch for the No. 7-ranked Corban University Volleyball team was exactly what Warrior Nation needed to see if the program had any chance of reaching their third-consecutive Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) Tournament championship match, as the Warriors finally broke their five-set match streak against the No. 12-ranked Southern Oregon University Raiders in the conference semifinal round. After dropping the opening set 25-23, Corban rebounded for 25-23, 26-24, and 25-19 set scores to clinch yet another postseason victory under head coach Kim McLain.
"SOU is a well-coached and talented team," Coach McLain began with sharing. "We knew we had to focus on defense at the net as well as in the back court, serving them tough to get their offense out of system. I was proud of how we dug deep in each set, fighting throughout every rally! It is exciting to see this team's growth and hard work paying off."
The rubber match between the Warriors (26-5) and Raiders (26-6) began just like every other matchup they've had thus far this season, with neither team willing to bend early in the set until SOU rattled off four-straight points and took a 14-10 lead. Those four points would prove to be the difference maker in favor of the Raiders, as a last minute comeback bid by Corban was stymied at 25-23 when Southern Oregon finally clinched the set before going to extra points.
The polar opposite result came in the second set for the two CCC powerhouse programs, as the Navy and Gold jumped out to their own lead and were able to hold on for their own 25-23 set win, knotting the match at a set apiece with no easy points coming for either team.
The third set was nothing short of a miracle for Coach McLain and her program, as the Warriors fought off four-straight set points to take the come-from-behind victory and earn the match lead, scoring on seven-consecutive plays to flip a 24-19 deficit into a 26-24 set victory. In the same set, junior middle blocker Allyson Reid became the all-time program leader in career blocks, logging her 431st block on a solo stuff of the Raiders with her team now leading two sets to one.
The momentum that the Warriors had built thanks to an incredible comeback in the third set was too much for SOU to handle, as the Navy and Gold jumped out to a 6-2 lead that forced SOU into an incredibly early timeout and never looked back. The first set to hold one of the two programs to under 20 points was the one that broke the Raiders' back, metaphorically speaking, and clinched another championship match for the McLain era of the program.
A 15-kill performance with just a single error for sophomore opposite hitter Makayla Roginski was the efficiency the team needed to see from the right side in order to earn the semifinal win this afternoon, as she added five block assists for an amazing all-around night on the court. Junior outside hitter Rylee Troutman added 14 kills and 12 digs for her twelfth double-double just this season and sent back four block assists as well, while redshirt sophomore middle blocker Jadah Schmidtke set a new career-high mark with 10 kills and three block assists.
The setting duo of sophomore Abby Guindy and junior Courtney Garwood combined for 50 assists tonight with 27 and 23, respectively, with Guindy adding nine digs and Garwood securing seven more. Junior libero Marissa Uehara dug up a team-high 17 digs in the backcourt, while Reid completed her record breaking performance with nine block assists and nine kills at the net.
Raiders' outside hitter Marin Mackey dropped a game-high 18 kills that didn't stand to be enough to defeat the Warriors, while opposite hitters Hannah Stadstad and Megan Perry added 12 kills apiece. Defensive specialist Trinity Atuatasi hauled in a game-high 21 digs, while libero Kayla Neidigh added 20 digs herself.
The No. 7 Warriors will watch tonight's Eastern Oregon-College of Idaho semifinal match to see who their opponent will be tomorrow, with the championship match scheduled for a 3pm start time at Quinn Coliseum.
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