BOX SCORE - DIXIE STATE 3, CORBAN 1

Seniors Becky Horn (#4) and Hallie Hofferd (pictured left) combined for 13 kills and 49 digs versus NCAA Division II Dixie State College of Utah. (Photo courtesy of William Scott Photography)

SALEM, Ore. – Seniors Nina Clanton (Hillsboro, Ore.), Hallie Hofferd (Bend, Ore.), and Becky Horn (Troutdale, Ore.) showed their talents against NCAA Division II member Dixie State College of Utah, but it was not enough as Corban's women's volleyball team fell in four games (30-25, 28-30, 29-31, 25-30) to the Rebels on Saturday.

Clanton and Hofferd each tallied 13 kills, while Horn re-started her streak of consecutive matches with 30-or-more digs thanks to a match-high 37. At the net, the senior duo of Hofferd and Clanton recorded 9 combined blocks, as Clanton registered 4 solo blocks and Hofferd tallied 2 solo and 3 assist blocks.

In the opening game, neither team came out firing on all cylinders. Corban recorded a mere 8 kills with 10 hitting errors (-.036 percentage), while Dixie State had 10 kills with 14 hitting errors (-.065 percentage). Hofferd and D-State's Cidney Judkins led all players with 3 kills in Game #1, as the Warriors grabbed the opening game by 5 points (30-25) thanks to 4 service errors by the visiting Rebels and 4 more blocks on the Warriors' side of the stats sheet.

The second game looked a little better on paper, as both team hit positive percentages. Each team recorded 10-or-more kills (14 for Corban & 13 for Dixie State) and the difference in such a close game came down to ball handling and control at the net. Dixie State took Game #2 (30-28) thanks to one less ball handling error and one more block than their counterparts across the net.

In the third game, everything came down to serving from behind the line. Despite another positive hitting performance from both teams, the visiting Rebels grabbed a close game (31-29) thanks to more service aces than Corban. Despite a overwhelming advantage at the net in blocks (10-4) at the conclusion of three games, Dixie State began to find the holes in the Warrior defense thanks to a mere 2 digs by Horn in the game and took a 2-1 advantage through three games.

In the fourth and final game, Corban watched as Dixie State committed its least amount of hitting errors (4) in the match compared to the Warriors' nine. Despite a match-high 15 team kills, Corban could not overcome a steady Rebel attack, as Dixie State took the final game by 5 points (30-25) and the match in four games.

Besides the senior duo's combined 26 kills, sophomores Chelsea Reeher (Powell Butte, Ore.) and Jessica McGraw (Gaston, Ore.) recorded 10 and 6 kills respectively. McGraw paced Corban's offensive attack with a match-high 21 assists, while McGraw, Hofferd, and Clanton added 22, 12, and 11 digs respectively to go along with Horn's match-high.

Dixie State was led by Judkins' match-high 17 kills, while Breena Bonnett and Heidi Erickson added 13 and 8 respectively. Whitnee Webster and Tera Fish guided the Rebels' attack with a combined 39 assists (20 for Webster and 19 for Fish), while Nikki Callahan anchored D-State's back line with a team-high 27 digs.

Corban is now 2-9 overall, while Dixie State improves to 6-5.  The Warriors will return to conference action on Friday, Sept. 22nd, when they travel south to Klamath Falls for a 7:00 p.m. matchup with the Hustlin' Owls of Oregon Institute of Technology.