Owls Fall to No.12 Warriors

KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. - Unforced errors continue to haunt the Oregon Tech volleyball team. "We still need to clean up our game. We are giving up too many points on unforced errors," head coach Andrew Clifton said after the Hustlin' Owls dropped a 28-25, 25-18, 25-16, 25-13 Cascade Collegiate Conference match to 12th-rated Corban. "Doing that won't work in this conference," he said.

After Tech opened with a win in the first set, in which the Owls attacked at .310 as opposed to the .122 of Corban, the Warriors, who battle Southern Oregon today in Ashland, began to play more inspired volleyball.

Tech opened the second set with a 1-0 lead. It would be the last time OIT held an advantage in the match. Corban would take a 6-1 lead and, with the exception of a 1-1 tie in the third set, the Warriors never trailed again, although they never completely had the match in hand, either.
"There were moments of brilliance, we just wanted more of them," Clifford said of OIT, which will host Northwest Christian at 7 p.m. Friday at Danny Miles Court to complete its weekend of volleyball.

Tech, which is among the league leaders in fewest blocks allowed, were throttled several times by Corban, which finished Thursday with eight blocks.

"We hit into people's blocks," Clifford lamented, and gave Corban credit for remaining disciplined at the net.

"We're playing our game, but it's tough to lose when you are not controlling the things we can control," he said. "We need to minimize making mistakes in chunks.

"Our older kids (one senior and four juniors) are still learning how to lead. We're still growing, and that's a good sign. We haven't peaked yet."

There were just three ties in Thursday's match, all at 1-1, and just two lead changes as Corban upped its league record to 12-3, and season mark to 15-6. OIT fell to 6-8 in the league and is 13-11 for the year.