LA GRANDE, Ore. – The No. 1 Eastern Oregon University Mountaineers took care of business in a three-set sweep of the Bushnell Beacons in the final match of Friday's CCC Tournament action. Despite a slow start Eastern was able to rally and secure their spot in the CCC Championship beating Bushnell 25-22, 25-18, and 25-19.
Bushnell started the first set off hot in their second match of the day jumping out to an early 10-2 lead. From their the Mounties went on a 10-2 run of their own to knot it up at 12 each. The two battled it out before Eastern took control late ending the match on a four-point swing that included kills by three different Mounties and a
Kara Clayton service ace giving the Mounties a 25-22 set victory.
Eastern kept a solid pace in the second set grabbing a 7-6 lead which they slowly built upon throughout the set. Despite a strong second set by Bushnell's Jessica Northcutt who racked up five kills, the Mountaineers pulled away taking the set 25-18 thanks to an efficient attack that hit .458.
In the third and final set of the evening the Mounties pulled away early and took control of the match with a momentum filled 10-2 run to go up 15-8. Eastern relied on their freshly named All-CCC hitters to carry them the rest of the way as
Sade Williams,
Kara Clayton,
Cambree Scott, and
Preslee Jensen accounted for the last seven Mountaineer points with kills on their way to a total of 11 kills in the set. Eastern claimed the set and match winning 25-19.
With the win the Mountaineers advance to the CCC Championship tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m. in Quinn Coliseum. They will take on rival Corban University for the CCC Tournament crown. Corban, currently ranked No. 4 in the country, is responsible for EOU's only conference-play loss this season. This marks the fifth straight CCC Championship appearance for the Mountaineers and third straight matchup with Corban in the Conference Championship.
BY THE NUMBERS:
- Eastern had one of its most efficient offensive nights of the year hitting .299 in the match with a set-high of .458 in the second
- The Mountaineers held the advantage in every major statistical category including points, kills, aces, blocks, digs, and assists
- EOU's Kara Clayton and Bushnell's Jessica Northcutt went head-to-head as the only players with double digit kills in the match
STANDOUT PERFORMANCES:
- EOU
- Bushnell
- Jessica Northcutt: 13 kills, .179 H%, 1 block, 2 digs
- Makenna Northern: 33 assists, 3 kills, 9 digs, 1 block
