CCC Volleyball Opening Round // #6 Bushnell vs. #7 Oregon Tech (Livestats | Video Stream)
 
EUGENE, Ore. - The Cascade Collegiate Conference volleyball tournament kicks off on Tuesday night with a pair of opening round games, one of which hosted by the Beacons inside the friendly confines of the Morse Center.
 
TOURNAMENT OUTLOOK: Bushnell earned the No. 6 seed for the CCC tournament and will face off against No. 7 Oregon Tech in a "play-in" style game for this Friday's conference quarterfinals. The other opening round game features No. 5 seed Northwest University hosting No. 8 seed Lewis-Clark State College.
 
The winners from Tuesday's games advance to the quarterfinals of the conference tournament on Friday morning in La Grande. The highest remaining seed will take on No. 4-seed College of Idaho while the lowest remaining seed will face No. 3 Southern Oregon. From there, the remaining teams will play again on Friday night against CCC Champion Eastern Oregon, or second-seed Corban. The championship game takes place on Saturday.
 
RECORD WATCH: Senior Halle Neumann is on the cusp of history as she needs just 13 kills to become Bushnell's all-time leader. She is just the second player ever to collect 900 kills and with 910 needs 13 more to pass Janel (Fetters) Coburn for the most in school history.
 
BUSHNELL OUTLOOK: The Beacons (15-11, 13-9) are coming out of a 1-1 home weekend in which they clinched the No. 6 seed by defeating Oregon Tech on Friday night in three sets before falling to No. 16 Southern Oregon University on Saturday in four. The Beacons are in the CCC post-season for the fifth straight year.
 
The Beacons are currently ranked sixth in the CCC for both hitting percentage (.164) and fifth for defensive hitting percentage (.146). They are also third in the conference for service aces (1.66/set) and fourth in blocks (2.21/set).
 
Junior Bella Parque is third in the CCC in digs with 4.89 per set while Celia Hubbard ranks seventh in blocks at 1.02 per set.
 
OREGON TECH OUTLOOK: The Owls (12-17, 10-12) ended the regular season with back-to-back losses to the Beacons and No. 6 Corban University.  
 
The Owls are ranked seventh in the CCC for hitting percentage (.158) and are seventh for defense, allowing opponents to hit .177 against them. They rank third in the CCC for digs with 16.02 per set. Molly Grace provides plenty of offense, ranked third in the conference with 3.43 kills per set.
 
Bushnell has now won seven of the last eight meetings with Oregon Tech, but the Owls still hold a slight 19-17 historical advantage. The Beacons are 17-10 dating back to 2010, after Tech won the first nine meetings. Bushnell swept the regular season series.