LEWISTON, Idaho – Molly Grace posted 20 kills and 16 digs and Kaley Whalen established Oregon Tech's single-season digs mark, as the Lady Owls upset Lewis-Clark State 22-25, 25-22, 25-21, 25-21 in the first-round of the Cascade Conference Championships, presented by U.S. Bank, at P1FCU Activity Center.
 
The win for the Lady Owls (19-12) advances the squad to the quarterfinals of the tournament on Friday, meeting No. 3-seed Southern Oregon in La Grande, Ore., at 12:30 p.m.
 
After the Warriors (15-13) scored the final four points to win the opening set, Tech controlled play throughout the remainder of the match. Grace had three kills in a 9-3 run in Set 2 that gave the Owls a 18-12 lead, with the squad easing to the set win. Savanna Sterck posted a pair of kills and a Grace ace punctuated an 8-2 run to end Set 3, while OIT never trailed in the deciding fourth set, building an 18-13 lead on an Aleksen Thayer kill and cruised.
 
Thayer finished the night with 10 kills and three blocks, with Savanna Sterck recording nine kills. Paige Tevelde recorded season highs with 34 assists and 12 digs.
 
Whalen led the Owls with 27 digs in the victory, pushing her season total to 586 – surpassing the single-season OIT record of 583 set by Marie Baumann in 2012.
 
Kate Hicks ended the night with nine kills and four blocks – tying Marcie Mitzner's all-time record of 328 career blocks.
 
Julianna Forgach-Aguilar led LCSC with 25 kills in the loss.