ASHLAND, Ore. — In a match for the ages, the (RV) Walla Walla Women's Volleyball team earned its first postseason victory in program history with a five-set epic against (RV) Southern Oregon in the Cascade Conference Tournament Play-In game presented by U.S. Bank on Tuesday.
The Wolves, seventh seed in the tournament, outlasted the sixth seed and host Raiders 17-25, 25-18, 25-20, 33-35, 15-12 and advance to the CCC Quarterfinals for the first time. Walla Walla will take on fourth seed College of Idaho in La Grande, Ore. at 5 p.m. on Thursday.
"I've never been prouder as a coach," Walla Walla coach
Kiana Krumm said. "The girls truly played their hearts out and left everything on the court. All of our players had incredibly impressive stats, and we beat out SOU in kills and digs! The Wolves have yet again made history, and all of their hard work this season showed on the scoreboard."
Walla Walla improved to 13-11 with the victory. Southern Oregon dropped to 14-14 and the Raiders will await to see if they are given an at-large bid into the NAIA Tournament.
The two-and-a-half hour match had 225 total points, 121 digs, 119 kills, 106 assists, 28 total blocks, 15 service aces and 30 service errors.
Sahara Browning led the way for the Wolves with 22 kills with a strong .269 hitting percentage. The junior added 17 digs and two aces.
Paula Flores had 18 kills and 18 digs and
Natalia Jimenez added 10 kills and five total blocks.
Vicky Giardina tied for the team lead with 18 digs and contributed two aces of her own. Freshman
Catalina Gutierrez Sebastia crushed her career highs with seven kills and seven blocks.
Yaimaris Garcia had 53 assists in the match, setting a single match record for Walla Walla since joining the NAIA in 2009. The freshman passed Torrey Haddad who had 51 assists back in 2010. Garcia had three service aces to push her amazing season total to 74, but did have seven service errors.
The service errors were a story of the match for the Wolves as the team set a record with 21 of them. Jimenez and Browning had four each, Giardina had three, Flores made two and
Adree Selley had one as well. Despite the struggles at the service line, Walla Walla never backed down and battled to the final point and had a strong team hitting percentage of .244.
For Southern Oregon, Andressa Ribeiro Soares and Friley Curtiss had 13 kills each. Annie Hite had 22 assists, Tais Vega had 17 digs and Lanie Snow had an incredible 13 total blocks.
Walla Walla had 69 kills as a team, second most in a single match since 2009, compared to the 50 by the Raiders and had 60 assists. Wolves topped SOU in digs 71-50 and held the Raiders to a .146 team hitting percentage.
The set of the year came in the fourth set. WWU had taken a two sets to one advantage and looked for its first CCC postseason victory. What transpired next was one of the wildest roller coasters you can imagine.
For the early stages of the set, neither team was able to gain control. Both teams traded blows and no side was able to get a full grasp of the momentum. The lead did not grow to more than three for either team until a block by Snow and Soares made it 21-17 SOU. Four points later it was another block, this time by the duo of Snow and Curtiss that put the Raiders up four and two points away from pushing the match to a fifth set.
The Wolves rallied to win four straight points, capped by a block by Sebastia and Browning, and the match was pushed to who could lead by two first. In a battle to see which team could earn that two point advantage took 22 more points. Southern Oregon denied WWU on six match point attempts and the Raiders needed five cracks at a set point opportunity before Soares put one away to push the match to a fifth set.
It was the longest set for Walla Walla since joining the NAIA in 2009. The Wolves lost a 33-31 set to Multnomah in 2021.
The fifth set started much like the fourth as the first nine points were traded back and forth. The Wolves were finally able to break that trend off an attack error by Soares and a kill by Shaver. After a timeout by SOU, the Raiders rallied for three straight points and tied the set 7-7 and forced a timeout by Krumm.
Flores came out of the timeout firing and had back-to-back kills and Garcia added one of her own and gave the visitors a 10-7 advantage, forcing Southern Oregon to burn its final timeout. The Raiders cut the lead to one, but Flores stuffed one away and Garcia showed off her amazing serving skills with consecutive aces and WWU was two points away from victory.
SOU did not go away and took advantage of the 21st service error by the Wolves and went on a three point rally and had the gap down to just one. That was when the front line of WWU took over. Jiminez and Sebastia combined for back-to-back blocks to close out the match and the Wolves advanced.
UP NEXT
Walla Walla will take on No. 18 College of Idaho in the CCC Quarterfinals in La Grande, Ore. at 5 p.m. on Thursday.
Stay up to date with all things Wolves Athletics at uwolves.com and on social media @theuwolves.
