LA GRANDE, Ore. – Down two sets in a building they hadn't won during the regular season since 2011 and trailing 7-1 in Set 3, the cards were stacked against the College of Idaho. However, behind career nights from
Ashley Pagan and
Taylor Alexander, the Lady Yotes battled back – rattling off three set wins to stun No. 12 Eastern Oregon inside Quinn Coliseum.
The duo for the 16th-ranked Lady Yotes (20-7, 15-4 CCC) combined for 49 kills in the 16-25, 20-25, 25-22, 25-22, 16-14 victory – clinching C of I no worse than the No. 3 seed in the Cascade Conference Championships. The win clinched the Yotes their fifth-straight 20-win season and their 13th 20-win campaign in the last 14 years.
After Eastern (22-6, 17-3) rolled through the first two sets and had the big led in Set 3, C of I found their game. The Yotes capitalized on three Mountie hitting errors in a 7-1 run to square the scored at 8-8, then got four Pagan kills and two
Marija Djonovic aces in an 8-0 run to break a 15-all tie, giving the visitors the set win.
Set 4 featured 12 ties, with the Mountaineers claiming a 22-21 lead after a C of I hitting error.
Jackie van Vliet earned a side-out with a kill, before a van Vliet spike was bookended by Alexander aces to force the winner-take-all final frame.
A nip-and-tuck Set 5 saw neither team scored three-straight points – with 13 total ties in the period. EOU grabbed their final lead at 13-12, before a Pagan kill and a Mountie hitting error gave the Yotes match-point. Pagan tried to close the match out, but a combo-block from Jet Taylor and Holli Mullins – the 17th of the night for the hosts – evened the score. Pagan earned a side-out with a kill and Alexander put away the clincher to end the match.
Pagan had a career-high 28 kills and added 24 digs – her fourth 20-20 match of the season – now just 26 kills and five digs away from reaching the 1,000 mark in both categories.
Alexander had a career-high 21 kills and chipped in with eight digs, with van Vliet logging 10 kills. Djonovic had 55 assists and 15 digs, with
Drew Dobney finishing with 20 digs.
Eastern cruised through the first two sets – using a 12-2 run in Set 1 to erase an 11-10 C of I lead behind four Taylor Tibbetts kills – while piling up six total blocks in the Set 2 victory.
Megan Bunn led EOU with 15 kills, 22 digs and seven blocks, with Tibbetts recording 12 kills and a match-high nine blocks – as the Mountaineers held a commanding 17-4 edge at the net.
C of I closes out the regular-season tomorrow night at winless Walla Walla and can clinch a quarterfinal bye in the CCC Championships with a victory and a Southern Oregon loss at Northwest Christian.
