EUGENE, Ore.  – For the second time in four days, the Bushnell volleyball team picked up a home sweep over Oregon Tech, but had to fight a little harder for this one with a 27-25, 31-29, 25-23 victory over the Owls in the opening round of the Cascade Collegiate Conference Championships presented by U.S. Bank.
 
The largest and loudest student section of the season was on hand as the No. 6-seeded Beacons (16-11) remained undefeated at home in the post season with the victory. It was an epic three-set battle that featured an astonishing 46 ties and 20 lead changes. Bushnell showed up with some intestinal fortitude, most notably in the waning moments of set two as they fought off four OIT set-points.

Head Coach Jason Corwin said, "I am so impressed by our performance tonight. Tech played a solid game and we just weathered it, stayed persistent and focused from start-to-finish. Nothing bothered us. We stayed aggressive, played smart, and made plays when we needed them most. Also, what a great crowd tonight! We fed off that energy and it made a huge impact on our performance."
 
Bushnell pulled out the win behind the strength of a .286 attack percentage. Oregon Tech (12-18) hit .248 on the night in an offense-heavy battle, but came up on the short end for what became their final match of the season.  
 
With two of the three sets going to extra-points, Bushnell was able to produce some eye-popping numbers on Tuesday. Most notably, junior Libero Bella Parque tied Bushnell's three-set-match record with 29 digs, a record (Haley Damian) which has stood for eight years. Leah Agost wasn't far behind in the kills column as she posted 19, just two shy of the Beacon three-set record.
 
Setters Katie Belitz and Peyton Ritchie delivered one of their best combined performances of the night with 49 assists on Bushnell's 61 kills. Belitz had 30 assists by herself. The distribution was effectively scattered with Agost seeing 41 attacks and four other players swinging at least 18 times. Celia Hubbard had 11 kills while Matty Ladd and Halle Neumann collected nine apiece. Makenna Mosher led the team and tied for a match-high six blocks.

For Neumann, she now needs just four kills to become Bushnell's all-time leader. "I love that Peyton-to-Halle closed the match tonight with a kill on the final play in our gym for both of our fifth-year seniors. Halle is on the cusp of a huge record and nobody deserves it more than her."
 
OIT was led in the loss by Savanna Sterck, collecting 15 kills while Molly Grace posted a double-double with ten kills and ten digs. Aleksen Thayer owns six blocks (three solo) and Kaley Whalen led the team with 24 digs.
 
The Beacons move on to the CCC Quarterfinals in La Grande on Friday. They will take on No. 3-seed Southern Oregon University at 9:00 am with the winner scheduled to compete in the Semifinals later that day.