OLYMPIA, Wash. – It had been 20 years since an Oregon Tech volleyball player posted a 20-20 match. Tonight in the Costantino Recreation Center, the Lady Owls made history, as both Molly Grace and Lucy Boyd achieved the feat, as Tech closed out the regular-season with a hard-fought 5-set win at Evergreen State.
 
Grace recorded 20 kills and 21 digs, with Boyd finishing with career-highs of 49 assists and 20 digs – while Kaley Whalen set an all-time school record with 45 digs – in the 25-20, 27-25, 24-26, 22-25, 17-15 win.
 
The Lady Owls (18-12, 11-11 CCC) remain on the road Tuesday night, traveling to Lewiston, Idaho, for a 6 p.m. match-up at Lewis-Clark State in the first-round of the Cascade Conference Championships. The winner advances to the tournament final site in La Grande, Ore., with quarterfinal play set for Friday.
 
The defensive slugfest saw both teams post season highs in digs, with the host Geoducks (4-22, 4-18) staving off match-point in Set 3 to nearly pull off a reverse sweep.
 
OIT rallied from an 18-16 deficit in Set 1, with Grace recording three kills in a 9-2 run that capped a Tech comeback. TESC tried to answer in Set 2, as Lucendy Perez had two kills to erase a 22-21 OIT lead, but Grace and Willow Jacobson responded with kills and a Boyd ace sent the Owls to a 2-set lead.
 
The Geoducks evened the match in the middle frames, as kills from Kaiyah Brown and Perez, along with an OIT hitting error erased a 24-23 Tech lead in Set 3, while TESC controlled the majority of Set 4.
 
The hosts looked to close out Set 5, leading 12-9 – but Grace proved to be too much, recording three kills in a 5-point rally to give OIT a 14-13 lead and following four side outs, ended the match with an ace.
 
The big nights from Grace and Boyd were the first 20-20 matches since Megan Albertson achieved the feat in October of 2004 against Northwest. Savanna Sterck added 17 kills, Jacobson had 13 kills and Aleksen Thayer posted seven kills and five blocks.
 
Whalen broke her own school record of 41 digs – established last season at Evergreen State – while adding six assists. The junior finished the weekend with 72 digs – pushing her season total to 559.
 
Perez led TESC with 11 kills and 22 digs, with libero Molly Packer adding 33 digs.