EUGENE, Ore.  –  The Bushnell volleyball team sits alone in fourth-place in the Cascade Conference after cruising to a 25-14, 25-19, 25-14 victory over Lewis-Clark State College on Saturday night.
 
The Beacons put the ghosts of two straight dramatic five-set victories behind them, taking advantage of every Warrior mistake as they improve to 11-6 on the season and 6-3 in the CCC. After taking No. 7 Corban University to the brink in a five-set loss on Friday, LC State (9-6, 6-4) had a .000 attack percentage and 19 unforced errors. It was the best defensive performance for the Beacons of the season.
 
"We are another step closer to finding what our standard of play can be," said head coach Jason Corwin after the match. "That was a good performance against a team that has been playing very good volleyball."
 
Ariana Guerra (pictured), who led the Beacons with 13 kills and hit .458 in the match, added, "That was a fun win. It feels great to leave the weekend 2-0, we all played so well and gave ourselves some new expectations for our level of play moving forward."
 
The Beacons hit .234 as a team on Saturday, held a 38-24 advantage in kills, and a clear 11-1 dominance in service aces. They completed a weekend in which they had 24 aces and overtook No. 5 Southern Oregon for the CCC lead in the category, averaging 2.1 per set on the year. Bushnell spread the wealth with five different players earning two aces apiece.
 
Hailey Heider had two aces, along with eight kills and a team-high 15 digs while starting setters Katie Belitz and Elijah Sanders combined for 28 assists, ten digs, and four aces. Another seven assists came from senior Libero Bella Parque, tying a career high.
 
Bushnell also posted seven blocks, equaling their highest total over their last eight matches. Brooklyn Dechent, Makenna Mosher, and Matty Ladd had match-highs with three block assists apiece. Mosher and Ladd also produced offensively as the former had five kills and hit .556 while the latter added seven kills.
 
Mosher said, "This was such a great team win today! We came out of the locker room determined and ready to play. As a team, we fostered the game plan and brought it all to the court. We played with consistency and heart and we were locked in."
 
"We all played really well together," added Ladd, "and never had any moments where we didn't play up to our standards. We new what we needed to do and we were able to do it in three sets!"
 
The Beacons move to 6-3 to sit alone in fourth-place in the CCC ahead of multiple four-loss teams including RV College of Idaho. Bushnell's conference losses have all come against teams ranked in the national top-seven.
 
Bushnell hits the road next weekend to close out the first half of the CCC schedule, taking on Evergreen State on Friday at 6:00 pm and Northwest on Saturday at 4:00 pm.