11/14/2009 4:43:37 PM
After never leading for most of the fourth set, the eighth-ranked College of Idaho volleyball team had an impressive comeback and knocked off 13th-ranked Southern Oregon 25-16, 25-15, 22-25, 29-27 to win the Cascade Conference Postseason Tournament title today in Caldwell, Idaho.
College of Idaho improves to 24-2 on the season and earns the conference's automatic berth to the NAIA National Championships. Southern Oregon falls to 24-3 overall and must wait until Sunday to see if they earn an at-large berth to the NAIA National Championships and when and where they will play. The NAIA National Tournament field will be announced at 4 p.m. on Sunday.
College of Idaho was very impressive in the first two sets, holding the Raiders to .063 and -.038 attack percentages to take what looked like a commanding 2-0 lead after the second set.
But the Raiders came on fire in the third set, building leads of 5-1 and 7-3. The two teams were tied at 19-19 before SOU pulled away.
A service ace by Leanne Stennett gave the Raiders a 23-19 lead and a kill by Chelsea Hartman and block by Sarah Holgen and Megan Bartling gave the Raiders the victory and put them back in the match.
The fourth set started off the same as the Raidres were up 12-7 on a Leah Bergstrom kill and 16-9 on a College of Idaho attack error.
The Coyotes got back in the set after three straight kills by Jessica Link to cut the SOU lead to 17-15.
The Raiders led 22-17 before again the Yotes came roaring back. Three SOU errors and kills by Kathryn Ely and Naomi Reimer tied the set at 23-23 and the Coyotes took their first lead at 24-23.
SOU held off match point with a Bergstrom kill and then the regular season co-champs began trading points.
A kill by Cieciley Fox gave the Yotes match point again at 28-27 and finally they were able to put it away on an SOU attack error.
Bergstrom led the Raiders with 10 kills. Bartling and Heather Porter combined for 10 blocks and Becky Johnstone had 21 digs.
Link led College of Idaho with 14 kills.