Box Score
EUGENE, Ore. – After nine sweeps in the first nine matches between the schools, Northwest Christian University took a set from Southern Oregon on Friday night in a 3-1 Cascade Collegiate Conference loss. NCU opened with a 28-26 victory in the first set and played right with the highly ranked SOU for the entire match before falling 26-28, 25-22, 25-17, 25-13.
Southern Oregon (9-4, 6-2 CCC) had a .282 hitting percentage in the match and was led by senior Sarah Holgen with 25 kills as she hit .483 on the night.
NCU Head Coach Mike Gaffaney said, “Our goal was to come out here tonight and show that we can play at a high level and for the vast majority of the match tonight we did just that. I have to hand it to Southern for kicking it into another gear and to Sarah for playing up to her All-American capabilities to bring them back into the match. They played like a top-25 team tonight.”
Senior Middle Blocker Danielle Nance (pictured) led the way for the Beacons (8-8, 3-5), collecting a team-high eight kills as she hit .438 on the evening. NCU's other presence in the middle was freshman Maddy Seevers, who led the team with four blocks on the night.
Maren Mansfield had a strong night with seven kills, six digs, and a match-high six service aces and sophomore Cori Wallace posted 28 assists and three aces. NCU, the top serving team in the CCC, posted 11 service aces in the match. NCU was out-dug 63-42 in the match as Dana Clark led NCU with 13.
Behind the 25-kill night from Holgen, SOU was led by Megan Bartling, posting 13 kills and a match-high eight blocks as the Raiders out-blocked NCU 9-4. Haley Fisko added eleven kills and five blocks and Caryn Westrick paced the team with a match-high 36 assists. Renee Yomtob led the team with 21 digs.
Southern Oregon next travels to Salem on Saturday evening to take on Corban University (8-8, 2-6). The Beacons, who have now taken a set off of three NAIA top-25 teams this season, have an afternoon match slated for a 1:00 start against Oregon Tech (9-6, 3-5). The matches will close out the first half of the Cascade Collegiate Conference schedule for all four teams.
