EUGENE, Ore. – In their closest match to date since the program was created in the spring of 2020, the No. 1-ranked Corban Beach Volleyball team (14-3) suffered only their third loss of the season in a closely contested 3-2 decision, where the NCAA DI University of Oregon Ducks (5-14) were able to take the top three pairs to eke out their fifth win of the year.

"Today were rough conditions to play in, as it was really cold, wet and windy which definitely affected the play on both sides of the court," Warriors' Head Coach Diana Villalpando began with as she explained the results from this afternoon's match. "However, we ultimately faced a much better defensive team than we've seen all season, which is great for us as a team."

Villalpando continued with her analysis by sharing, "We must be better setters and make better attacking choices. We didn't come out with a win, but we came away with good lessons learned and goals to work towards going into the end of the season. There is still more we can omprove on, which means we haven't found our peak yet. And this is progress as a program, we only took one pair wins against the Ducks last year, while this year we took two and hopefully next year we can take a match win."

Every pair but the fifth experienced narrow final scores in one or more sets, with the Ducks coming out on top in the ones, twos, and threes to take the match outright. However, the University of Oregon failed to secure what would have been their fourth-consecutive sweep or 4-1 decision over the Warriors, as Corban's fourth and fifth pairs pulled off major upset wins on the Ducks' home courts.

In the battle of the fours, senior Kealani Ontai and sophomore Maya Blake defeated Ducks' Abby Pelvin and Batia Rotschtein in the first set with a solid 21-18 result, before the scoreboard was flipped in the second set to force a decisive third set. With their backs against the wall, Ontai and Blake rallied off a pivotal 15-9 final set score to post the first of two major wins for NAIA beach volleyball this afternoon.

Later in the match, the five pairs took to the courts and Corban's senior Jolinn Daviscourt and redshirt sophomore Kalisi Latu combined for a convincing defeat over U of O's Lolo Folau and Kendall Clark, leading to the Warriors' second pair victory and allowing them to fall just one pair shy of an incredible come-from-behind road upset.

The full results from today's matchups can be found below:

University of Oregon 3, Corban 2

1. Bea Wetton/Ella Tyus (UO) def. Avari Ridgway/Megan Dennis (CRB): 23-21, 21-15

2. Chloe Brown/Zoe Almanza (UO) def. Kianna Keeling/Cameron Keeling (CRB): 21-13, 21-19

3. Ashley Schroeder/Natasha George (UO) def. Jessica McMillian/Ally Schmidt (CRB): 21-19, 21-16

4. Maya Blake/Kealani Ontai (CRB) def. Abby Pelvin/Batia Rotshtein (UO): 21-18, 18-21, 15-9

5. Jolinn Daviscourt/Kalisi Latu (CRB) def. Lolo Folau/Kendall Clark (UO): 21-12, 21-14

Order of finish: Doubles (2,4,1,6,3,5)

The Warriors will return to their home courts for their final hosted tourney of the season by the travel team, as they will host the Cascade Collegiate Conference schools (Bushnell University, Southern Oregon University, and Northwest University) one final time before making final preparations for the Cal Pac Conference Tournament. They will battle the Eagles at 10am and the Raiders at 2pm PDT this upcoming Saturday and will be honoring their senior student-athletes as well.

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