LA GRANDE, Ore. – An upset bid against the No. 7 ranked team in the NAIA came up just short, Oregon Tech battled rival Southern Oregon throughout their Cascade Conference Tournament quarterfinal match-up, with the Lady Owls dropping an extremely tight four-set affair at Quinn Coliseum.
 
SOU's (25-3) 25-23, 26-24, 20-25, 26-24 win over Tech, coupled with a sweep of Corban, pushed the Raiders into tomorrow's title match against top-seed Eastern Oregon – clinching an automatic bid to the NAIA Championships.
 
The Lady Owls (19-13) nearly derailed the Raiders journey – posting a stellar .256 hitting percentage – as seniors Molly Grace, Kate Hicks and Paige Tevelde led the charge. Playing in their final collegiate match, Grace finished with 16 kills and 12 digs, Hicks had 11 kills and five blocks – becoming Tech's all-time blocks leader, with Tevelde logging a season-high 53 assists.
 
The match could have swung the opposite direction, if not for key plays made by SOU. Tied 23-23 in Set 1, CCC Player of the Year Megan Perry delivered a kill, followed by a winner from Hannah Stadstad, giving the Raiders the early lead. Southern sprinted out to a 10-4 lead in Set 2, but Aleksen Thayer recorded two kills and a block in a 9-3 OIT run to retake the lead. Perry again came through for the Raiders, breaking a 24-24 tie with consecutive kills to end the set.
 
OIT returned the favor in Set 3, as a Hicks kill, followed by a Hicks-Savanna Sterck combo block started a 7-2 set-ending run by the Owls to extend the match. Tech built a 22-19 lead in Set 4, before Linda Conceicao ripped three kills in a match ending 7-2 run for SOU.
 
Sterck had 12 kills and Thayer posted nine kills and four blocks for OIT. Libero Kaley Whalen had 15 digs, becoming the first Lady Owls player to surpass 600 digs for a season – finishing with 602.
 
Perry had 17 kills and Stadstad added 16 kills in the win for Southern.