ASHLAND, Ore. – A five-set marathon last night in Klamath Falls apparently wasn't thrilling enough for the No. 4-ranked Corban University Volleyball team, as the Warriors stormed back from a 2-1 set deficit against the No. 17-ranked Southern Oregon University Raiders at the Lithia Motors Pavilion earlier tonight, winning their second consecutive tiebreaker set to stay perfect in Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) play. Corban took the match by final set scores of 15-25, 25-15, 18-25, 25-10, and 15-9.
"I am so proud of the team and how they never gave up!" Warriors' head coach Kim McLain shared moments after their stunning come-from-behind victory. "SOU came to play and kept us on our heels in the first set. They are a well-coached and talented team! We realized that we had to make our presence known at the net, focusing on out-blocking them, serving tough and being aggressive offensively. It came down to us executing our plan and staying together as a team!"
As to be expected with a Top 25 matchup of conference rivals, neither of the CCC juggernauts could expand their team leads by more than two points through the middle half of the first set, with the largest lead being owned by the Warriors at 10-8. However, SOU was able to match that lead at 13-11 just seven points later.
That momentum by SOU to take a two-point lead eventually led to what seemed like a massive seven-point lead, forcing Coach McLain into utilizing both of her timeouts in an attempt to stop the hometown team from gaining even more energy in a packed crowd. Those timeouts would prove to be a moot point, as the SOU stormed to a 25-15 first set win on their Welcome Weekend for the entire school enrollment entering the fall term.
Much to the chagrin of the Raider fan base, the Warriors stormed out of the first set break to take an 8-4 lead and put SOU in their first timeout situation of the match. Southern Oregon mounted a slight comeback with back-to-back points out of the timeout, but Corban remained dedicated to their gameplan and pushed their lead to six points at 17-11, as the front row came alive with a pair of blocks and forced Raiders' head coach Josh Rohlfing to call his second timeout of the set.
What was once a scorching hot .667 kill percentage through one set played had dwindled to .357 for SOU at the second timeout mark, as the Corban attackers were now up to four team blocks. In unsurprising fashion, the Warriors and Raiders traded the first two sets by exact scores, as Corban's defense picked up the pace and took the second set 25-15 and silenced the once rowdy SOU crowd.
As per Raiders' play-by-play announcer Bill Martin, the Warriors had begun to put on "an absolute clinic" in the Lithia Motors Pavilion, as their momentum carried into the third set with a 4-1 lead and saw Coach Rohlfing take a timeout just five points into the period. That timeout proved to be the best utilized stoppage of the contest thus far, as SOU would score the next five points and take a slight 6-4 lead before sophomore opposite hitter Makayla Roginski dropped a kill down the right sideline.
Thus, the pendulum swung back into Southern Oregon's corner, as numerous attacking and reception errors by Corban resulted in a 10-6 lead for the Raiders with the energy growing on SOU's campus. Despite multiple attempts by the Warriors to secure rallies on the road in a vital third set, the Raiders continued to keep the pressure on Corban's back row and force the navy and gold cladded attackers into making errors.
A slight run by the Warriors was quickly nullified by a timeout from SOU, which resulted in three-straight points from the Raiders to secure a 25-18 third set victory and hold a 2-1 lead on their home court.
The righthanded side of the court at the Lithia Motors Pavilion seemed to hand over a bad time to whoever was playing on it tonight, as the Warriors jumped out to a 4-0 lead and forced another early timeout by Southern Oregon. With only ten points being scored thus far, Corban held a 9-1 lead and had already forced SOU into utilizing both of their timeouts for the fourth set. The Warriors' lone point surrendered to this point of the set was due to a blocking error at the net, which is ironic considering how many total team blocks the Warriors had mounted to this point of the match (13).
Freshman defensive specialist Kaile'a Ontai even made an appearance in a dominant start to the fourth set for Corban, earning a service ace on her first opportunity from the line before subbing back out for the Warriors' middle blocking unit. The most lopsided decision of the evening went in favor of the Navy and Gold, forcing their second-straight fifth set match of the weekend, 25-10 the final score in set number four.
The Lithia Motors Pavilion was absolutely rocking to begin the fifth set, with neither team willing to budge in a must-win situation for both teams to stay alive at the top of the conference standings. Back-and-forth the Warriors and Raiders went, in a complete duplicate of the opening set where the squads traded points for a majority of the set. However, it was Corban who clung to an 8-6 lead heading into the sideline swap, with their kill percentage now over the .240 mark and SOU well below .200 themselves.
With every point feeling like a mountain of a hill to climb, Corban continued to persevere as true "road Warriors", as they pushed Southern Oregon to the absolute max. Corban's balance on both the offensive and defensive sides of the net ended up being more than enough to complete a comeback for the ages in Ashland earlier tonight. A whopping eighteen team blocks, a season-high mark for the Warriors, was the highlight of a 15-9 tiebreaker set victory that cemented a five-set thriller in the final leg of the southern Oregon tour.
Junior outside hitter Rylee Troutman continued to have herself an absolute weekend down south, registering 21 kills to give her an even 50 for the weekend in just two matches played. She added six digs, five block assists, and a solo stuff to her game totals, as Martin dubbed her the "Highest Kill Player on the Planet".
The high octane Corban offense dealt out fifty-seven total kills this evening, with fifty of those kills being shared equally by sophomore setter Abby Guindy and freshman setter Nadeiah Howard. The dynamic duo each threw together 25-assist and 8-dig performances to keep the Warriors atop the conference standings.
According to Newton's Third Law of Motion, when two objects interact, they apply forces to each other of equal magnitude and opposite direction. This wasn't the case in tonight's matchup however, as the Warriors' front line sent back 12% of SOU's total attacks, the program's highest rate in a single match in over two years. Junior middle blocker Allyson Reid led the team with nine block assists and solo block, followed closely behind by freshman middle blocker Emma Bischoff who had seven block assists. Troutman, Roginski, and freshman opposite hitter Taylor Kieser all added five block assists in the dominant defensive showing for the Navy and Gold.
It wasn't just the blockers that showed up tonight for the Warriors, as junior libero Marissa Uehara and junior defensive specialist Graci Zanona combined for twenty digs in the backcourt to cap off an all-around performance for Corban.
Offensively for the Raiders, outside hitter Carol Melo had 15 kills with outside hitter Marin Mackey adding 11 kills, despite 17 attacking errors between SOU's high-powered offensive threats. Setters Vitoria Mattos and Annie Hite also combined for 50 dimes tonight in the Raiders' efforts, as Southern Oregon kept pace in the kill department with Corban but defensively couldn't find their identity on their home court. Libero Kayla Neidigh hauled in a game-high 18 digs while defensive specialist Trinity Atuatasi added 12 digs during her rotations.
The No. 4-ranked Warriors return home for their biggest matchup on Tim Hills Court this season, as they'll welcome No. 1-ranked Eastern Oregon University (15-1, 8-1) for the first battle of the conference leaders since Corban sent the Mounties packing in last year's NAIA National Semifinal match.
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