Volleyball Sweeps California Schools

ROCKLIN, Calif. — After watching a two-set lead slip away, Oregon Tech came back to win a deciding fifth set Friday to post a 25-13, 25-16, 20-25, 21-25, 15-11 victory over California Merced in the William Jessup volleyball tournament.

"I am proud of our perseverance today through some real rough play," said OIT Head Coach Andrew Clifton. "Hats off to Simpson and UC Merced for pushing us to our limits. Ashley Ripplinger had some great hits today and Nicole Reyes found her groove. We also got some smart decisions from Jaime Toedtemeier late in the games. We will build on these wins tomorrow and see if we can improve finishing teams off."

To open play Friday, Tech clipped Simpson (3-0) 25-22, 25-9, 25-23.

OIT, now 6-2, returns to tournament play at 9 a.m. Saturday against Menlo College, and then will wrap up the tournament at 7 p.m. today against host William Jessup.

Friday's Matches

Oregon Tech 3, Simpson 0
Tech had to come from behind in both the first and third sets before the Hustlin' Owls could claim their win over Simpson in their first match of the season out of state.

OIT scored the last five points of the first set to overcome a deficit and claim the 25-22 win in a set in which there were four ties and three lead changes.

In the third set, OIT broke the last of 11 ties scoring the final two points in the 25-23 win. There had been four lead changes.

The second set was an OIT domination in which the Hustlin' Owls rolled off 11 straight points to turn an 11-7 edge into a 22-7 advantage. Tech scored the first point, Simpson tied the match and OIT then pulled away for the win.

Camryn Johnson had 11 OIT kills in the match in which the Hustlin' Owls attacked at a .321 clip. Faith Houck-Wylie and Melody Edwards both had nine kills.

Jamie Toedtemeier had OIT's first double-double of the season with 22 assists and 11 digs. Aubrey Kievit finished with 14 digs, and Nicole Reyes had 11.

Oregon Tech 3, California Merced 2
After dominating the first two sets, including a .294 attack effort in the first, OIT went into a funk, had one of its worst sets of the season, when it hit .025, and then had a big rally in the fourth set to take momentum into the final set.

There were 18 ties and nine lead changes in the match, with OIT using a 9-0 run in the first set to take a 15-5 lead, its biggest of the match. Tech led, 20-11, in the second match. OIT then scored the last four points of the match to win the final set.

In between, UCM scored six of the last seven points in the third set and then raced to leads of 7-0 and 13-3 in the fourth before Tech was able to close its deficit to three four different times toward the end of the set.

Ashley Rippplinger finished with 15 kills, and Reyes 10, for OIT, which completed the match with .182 attack effort. Kaylin Talonen added seven kills to the effort.

Toedtemeier came back with another 32 assists, and also had two service aces. Kievit had 14 digs, Reyes 10 in Tech's second double-double effort of the season, and Alicia Volk had nine. Reyes also had three aces, and Toedtemeier two.