Box Score PORTLAND, Ore. – Despite posting their best hitting night of the season with a .254 percentage, the Multnomah University Lions could not hold off a sizzling .500 hitting performance by the Oregon Institute of Technology and fell to the Owls at home 3-0 (26-24, 25-17, 25-21) Friday here at Lytle Gym.
In the first set,
Miranda Halverson sparked an 8-1 run with two kills and two aces that brought the Lions from behind 20-14 to a 22-21 lead. Maile Kim's ace gave Multnomah a 24-23 edge, but two winners by Chase Bohman and an ace by Whitney Webster enabled the Owls to prevail.
OIT dominated the second set, racing out to a 19-7 lead before the Lions bounced back to make it a bit closer at the end. The same thing happened in the third set as the Owls flew out to a 12-3 advantage, only to see the Lions come roaring back. Down 23-16, the Lions got kills from
Sydney Amundsen,
Patty Batoon and Halverson, and a pair of aces by
Sabrina DeJesus-Bair to make it 23-21, but the Owls finally clinched the match on a service error and an ace by Jaime Toedtemeier.
Batoon led the Lions offensively with 14 kills and a .314 hitting percentage, while Halverson added nine kills and Amundsen eight.
Marissa Rhodes and
Kayla Keane handed out 19 and 13 assists respectively. Defensively, DeJesus-Bair had a team-high nine digs and three service aces, with Halverson also scoring three aces as the Lions collected 12 service winners in all.
Oregon Tech's Bohman had 22 kills and only two errors in 40 attempts for a .500 hitting mark, and Webster chipped in with eight kills and no errors in 10 attempts for a .800 percentage. Toedtemeier passed out 35 assists, while Bohman led the way defensively with 14 digs and three blocks.
Multnomah dropped to 2-9 overall and 1-5 in the Cascade Conference, while Oregon Tech evened its record at 4-4 overall and 2-2 in the CCC.
Quoting Coach Jenna Bouey: "OIT played well tonight offensively and defensively. We had moments of greatness, but our errors were, unfortunately, at key moments. We just need to get over the hump of finishing these close games, and we believe we will."
Next: Multnomah hosts Southern Oregon University in a CCC match Saturday at 5:00 p.m. … Oregon Tech visits Warner Pacific College for a CCC game Saturday at 5:00 p.m.
