SALEM, Ore. – The LC State Volleyball team had its eyes on an upset on Friday night in Salem, Ore. when it faced the No. 14 Corban University Warriors. After a rough first set, LC State bounced back to take set two 25-23 and nearly took the third before falling in four (25-14, 23-25, 28-26, 25-18).
 
"After the first set, we reminded the team about how hard we were fighting against OIT and they started bringing a little more heat and I think it just knocked Corban back on its heels," Head Coach Shaun Pohlman said. "It took them a set and a half to recover and then we slowed down in the fourth set. We stopped pushing and Corban took advantage."
 
Pohlman does not view the loss simply as a loss, however, due to how his team performed against the powerhouse program that Corban maintains year-in and year-out.
 
"Honestly, for outsiders of the program, they may just look at this as a loss, but for me it really wasn't," Pohlman said. "We have been through a lot with roster changes and injuries, and we were playing in a rotation we had never played in before tonight. They competed with the No. 14 team in the country despite all of that. No one likes to lose, and I am not happy we lost, but I am proud of how much fight we had. With everything that we have gone through this year we could have just shown up and given up, but we made them sweat and we made them work for it. We didn't give it to them."
 
Despite an early run by LC State, Corban took control in the first set. The visiting Warriors jumped out to a 3-0 lead on a block by Jada Wyms and a pair of attack errors. Corban quickly bounced back to take an 11-8 lead before closing out the set shortly after.
 
LC State turned the tables in set two in comeback fashion. Trailing 12-6, LC rattled off four straight with a kill by Tori Edwards and two aces by Hannah Martinez to cut the deficit to 12-10. Corban pushed back to widen the gap to 17-12, but a kill by Wyms evened things up at 18-18. Carli Berntson put LC in front 20-19 with a kill on an assist from Martinez, and Edwards pushed the score to set point with a kill at 24-22. A service error by Corban ended the set 25-23.
 
The momentum carried over into set three and took a 7-2 lead out of the gate. Chloe Emory opened the set with a kill with an assist from Kenzie Dean, and back-to-back swings by Emory made it 7-2. Corban pulled within two at 8-6 before a block by Wyms and Edwards swung the momentum back to LC State. Back-to-back blocks by Hallie Seaman and Edwards pushed the score to 14-7 as part of a five-point run, but the Corban Warriors continued to chip away until they tied the set 24-24. Two attack errors by LC State ended the set 28-26 in favor of Corban.
 
Corban began the fourth set with a 4-0 run before an error put LC on the board. A block by Berntson and Seaman and a kill by Berntson fueled a four-point run to even the score 4-4 as the teams traded points. LC broke up the back-and-forth with two straight kills from Emory and Seaman for a 13-11 advantage, but Corban answered right back to tie things up once more.
 
Corban took the lead on an LC State error at 17-16 and pushed its advantage to 21-18. They wrapped up the match with a 25-18 victory in the set.
 
Emory led the Warriors with 12 kills in the match and Wyms tallied eight. Martinez dished out 16 assists and Jess Ruffing dealt 10. Kenzie Dean held down the defense with 20 digs while Wyms and Seaman each had four blocks.
 
LC faces off with the Corban Warriors again tomorrow at 6 p.m. in Salem, Ore.
 
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