KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. -  It certainly was not a thing of beauty. A Cascade Collegiate Conference victory it was. Oregon Tech scored the final three points of the match to slip past spirited Warner Pacific Friday, 21-25, 25-16, 27-25, 20-25, 15-13 at Danny Miles Court in just the second home match of the season for the Hustlin' Owls. OIT improved to 9-4 overall and 2-1 in Cascade Conference play with WP slipping to 0-3 in the CCC and 1-6 overall.
 
"We made a lot of errors that we have to take care of better," coach Andrew Clifton said. "It certainly wasn't our best hitting game."
 
Both the head coach and sophomore Melody Edwards agreed on one thing — Tech needs to quit over thinking the game. "We have struggled with that, but we're getting better," Clifton said. "Once we loosen up a little, we can be good." Edwards said, "I think we let the game get into our heads too much. When push came to shove, though, we pulled together."
 
Warner Pacific, which remained winless in league play, did a solid job blocking OIT's attack, and there were moments when the Hustlin' Owls did not adjust quickly in what proved to be a see-saw evening in a match in which there were 44 ties and 20 lead changes.
 
A key, too, Clifton said, was the return of Gennah Schoen to the WPU lineup.
"That made them change their offense," Clifton said.
 
It was effective enough to keep OIT off balance much of the night.
 
"They keyed on Ashley Ripplinger, so it was good for Melody to step up," Clifton said.
 
Both had a team-high 15 kills for Tech, and Edwards attacked at .424, easily a team best. Both were solid in the blocking game, too, Ripplinger was involved in eight blocks, three of which were solo efforts. Edwards had one solo block among here five.
 
"Another big difference for us was that Faith Houck-Wylie caught fire at the end, and that really helped," Clifton said.
 
Almost unheard of much of Tech's first five-set match of the season, Houck-Wylie had all seven of her kills in the fourth and fifth sets.
 
Nicole Reyes had a double-double for OIT with 11 kills and 12 digs. She also had one solo block among her three.
 
Jaime Toedtemeier had a double-double effort with 34 assists and 14 digs. Courtney Isom had a career best 20 assists, while Aubrey Kievit had a Tech season-high 28 digs.
 
The Owls will next host Multnomah University Saturday at 5:00 pm with Warner Pacific traveling to Ashland to play Southern Oregon University. SOU beat MU Friday 3-0.
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