Beacons Down Owls in 5-Sets
/
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. - Early struggles proved costly, again, for Oregon Tech's volleyball team after the Hustlin' Owls dropped a 25-19, 22-25, 25-21, 16-25, 15-12 decision to Northwest Christian Friday at Danny Miles Court.
"We knew going in it was crucial," OIT coach Andrew Clifton said. The loss puts OIT's battle to reach the Cascade Collegiate Conference playoffs in a tenuous position with five matches left in the regular season.
"We started off like we did against The College of Idaho two weeks ago," Tech's coach said. "After dropping the first game-and-a-half, by the time we got it going, we had things going our way."
Then came unforced errors â in attacking the net, serving and serve receive.
"Volleyball is like baseball, a momentum sport, so it's when your mistakes happen that count," Clifton said.
"We shot ourselves in the foot a lot tonight," he said. "We were playing catchup all night and had a lot of nervous errors."
The only set which was not a see-saw struggle was the fourth when OIT dominated the competition and held the largest team lead in any set throughout the contest, and that was the final 25-16 count.
Until then, OIT's 24-19 lead in the second set had been the second largest margin either team held against the other in a match in which there were 37 tie scores, and 14 lead changes.
NCU's single biggest lead was at the end of the first set.
With the win, NCU evened its league record at 8-8, and allowed the Beacons to secure a berth in the six-team playoffs. The team is 16-9 on the year.
Tech, meanwhile, fell to 6-9 in the league, and has a three-match lead for the eighth, and final, playoff berth, with matches at nationally ranked Eastern Oregon and College of Idaho coming up. Then comes a match at Walla Walla before OIT completes the regular season at home Nov. 7-8.
