EUGENE, Ore. –
Tiffini Goss had 16 kills and
Lucy Boyd posted a double-double for Oregon Tech, but host Bushnell made plays down the stretch to extend their season, as the Beacons topped the Lady Owls in a Cascade Conference Tournament first-round match-up 16-25, 25-20, 26-24, 25-20 inside the Morse Event Center.
The Beacons (18-10) advance to meet Corban in the CCC Tournament quarterfinals, while the Lady Owls saw their season ended.
Boyd had 28 assists and 12 digs for OIT (15-14), with
Alexa Gugliotta recording 11 kills, both
Kaliko Schilling and
Shalyn Bliss finishing with eight kills and
Kaley Whalen capped an amazing career with 27 digs.
Taya Blankenship had 16 kills and 13 digs to lead BU, including key plays in big runs to erase OIT leads.
Tech dominated Set 1, holding the Beacons to a -.047 attack percentage in a dominant opener and held leads of 6-1 and 15-11 in Set 2 following a Goss kill. The hosts answered with the first of many game-changing runs, as an 8-1 surge which featured four OIT hitting errors, gave BU the lead for good.
The Owls had command of Set 3, leading 22-17, before Blankenship recorded three kills in a 6-point run to give BU a 23-22 lead. Goss followed with consecutive kills to give the Lady Owls set point – but Blankenship got a side out, followed by an Amyah Semau kill and a block to end the set.
OIT led again in Set 4 at 13-8, but Blankenship struck again, recording four kills in a game-changing 13-2 run to lose out the match.
