With the conference title on the line, all Southern Oregon’s volleyball team needed to do was win.
The Raiders did just that as they prevented the Geoducks from scoring more than 14 points in a three set sweep over Evergreen State this Friday at the McNeal Pavilion.
It was the perfect send off for the Raiders three seniors Leah Bergstrom, Lindsey Stone and Leanne Stennett as they were recognized before the game started.
In the first set, the Geoducks didn’t produce double-digits until the Raiders recorded match-point at 24-9 making it 24-10. At that point Evergreen posted two more points before the Raiders closed out the set 25-12.
The second set was to a similar drum beat. The Raiders went up 24-9 before the Geoducks scored their tenth point of the set. SOU closed out the set 25-10 before the Geoducks had a chance to climb back into the match.
Holding a two set lead, the Raiders opened up the third set with a 6-0 run before Evergreen scored three unanswered points to cut the lead in half. Afterwards, Southern Oregon went up 11-5 seemingly pulling away from the Geoducks as they did in the first two sets of the match.
However, the Geoducks started to climb back into the match and went on a run of their own. Soon it was 19-12 with the Geoducks looking more and more confident.
The Raiders, however, managed to swing the momentum back in their favor and finished the set on a  6-2 run to win the final set 25-14, taking the match.
Southern managed to hold Evergreen to a negative attack percentage at -.022.
Sarah Holgen and Leanne Stennett both finished with double-digits kills. Holgen had 11 kills to complement her 10 digs and Stennett had 10 kills to accompany her nine digs. Becky Johnstone led the Raiders with 45 digs for the night.
