KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. – Determined not to drop a third-straight match for the first time since the 2018 fall season, the No. 3-ranked Corban University Women's Volleyball team regained their composure within Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) play and dealt out a three-set road sweep to Oregon Tech, as the Warriors dominated play at the net to attack well over .300 for the match while holding the Lady Owls to under a .100 kill percentage and under 11 kills per set. This marks the eleventh-consecutive victory for the Navy and Gold over OIT since 2020 and second-straight sweeping decision in the Klamath Basin.
"Oregon Tech is a very strong team at the net," began Corban head coach Kim McLain when discussing tonight's result. "We knew we had to serve tough and be ready to battle defensively at the net. I'm proud of how our team fought for every point. This match showed our resilience and ability to stay focused under pressure."
After falling in back-to-back four-set nationally ranked road matchups last weekend at No. 12-ranked College of Idaho and No. 1-ranked Eastern Oregon University, the Warriors (11-3, 5-2) needed an opportunity to reset their mental and return to national-title caliber play, which they found tonight against one of nine teams within the CCC to have received top 25 votes at some point this season in a Lady Owl program (7-7, 1-6) that had just earned their first conference win of the season in their previous outing.
While OIT hung around early in both the first and second sets, Corban utilized long rallies to force Tech into timeouts and making both forced and unforced errors at the net, whether it be by Warrior attackers tooling their blockers or swatting incoming attacks back to sender. In the center of both 5-0 and 6-0 runs in the first and second periods, respectively, was senior opposite hitter Makayla Roginski, as the Gresham native accounted for six of the eleven points in those rallies via her powerful lefthanded swing.
Despite going up 2-0 in sets and leading 19-13 in the third set, the Lady Owls finally found their footing and pounced for the longest heater of the night via an 8-0 run to move from down six to up a pair and reclaim their home court momentum. However, Coach McLain's second timeout of the run forced a service error and behind back-to-back kills from sophomore middle blocker Addison Mills and redshirt sophomore opposite hitter Taylor Kieser, the Navy and Gold regained their footing.
Tech would hold set point at 24-23, but an over-kill from Kieser and the lone service ace of the night from a Warrior by sophomore defensive specialist Madison Hernandez flipped OIT set point into Corban match point, and following the trading of points, Roginski and senior middle blocker Gracie Boeder combined for the final block of the evening to send Tech back to the loss column and revive the Warriors' championships aspirations.
Roginski powered the Warriors both offensively and defensively at the net this evening, as she tallied a game-high 14 kills with just two errors for a .444 attacking clip, all while registering seven blocks and digging up four balls in the backcourt. Both junior outside hitters Emma Bischoff and Kendra Bittle secured ten kills apiece behind Roginski, with Bischoff falling one-dig shy of a double-double with nine.
Boeder united with Roginski on five of her match-high eight blocks tonight to set a new career-high as a Warrior, while Mills chipped in with five more blocks and seven kills. The assisting duo of senior Abby Guindy and junior Nadeiah Howard dealt out 20 and 18 assists, respectively, while junior libero Kaile'a Ontai picked up another 16 digs in just three sets.
The Lady Owls were led by middle blocker Aleksen Thayer and her team-high eight kills, representing the only OIT student-athlete to attack over .300 for the match. Typical all-around setter Lucy Boyd was limited to just 18 assists, her second-lowest offensive output of the season, while libero Abigail Sorensen snagged 22 digs defensively to surpass Ontai on the conference leaderboard for digs per set by 0.02 of a dig.
Tomorrow night, yet another NAIA Top 25 road matchup awaits the Warriors in Ashland, as the No. 25-ranked Raiders of Southern Oregon University (6-8, 3-4) will attempt to hand Corban women's volleyball only their fourth regular season loss of the season.
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