Warriors keeps playoff hopes alive with win over Knights

October 14, 2005

BOX SCORE

SALEM, Ore. – Junior Nina Clanton (Hillsboro, Ore.) led Corban’s women’s volleyball team to a much needed victory over Warner Pacific, 3-1 (31-29, 24-30, 30-20, 30-27), thanks to a match and career-high 20 kills on Friday night, as she helped keep the Warriors’ hopes of making their ninth straight appearance in the conference post-season tournament alive.

After a quick start in game one, Clanton (pictured right) continued her hot play in the second game with 6 kills, fell off a little in the third game when she recorded a mere 2 kills, but came back in the fourth and final game with 7 kills.

Throughout the match, neither team recorded more than 9 attack errors in a game, while both teams had positive hitting percentages and recorded double-digit kills in each of the four games.

Along with Clanton, senior Katie Lewin (Keizer, Ore.) and freshman Chelsea Reeher (Powell Butte, Ore.) recorded 16 and 11 kills respectively.  With her 11 kills, Reeher eclipsed the 200-kill plateau and continues to lead the team in that category.

Senior setter Ashley Walbridge (Troutdale, Ore.) guided the Warriors’ attack, as she handed out a match-high 50 assists and recorded her 8th double-double of the season with 12 digs.

Junior libero Becky Horn (Troutdale, Ore.) continued to anchor Corban’s back line with a match-high 36 digs.  So far this season, Horn has recorded a team-high 391 digs, which places her 6th on the all-time single season digs list in Warrior history and is a mere 23 digs away from breaking into the top 5.  Horn also leads the team and conference with an average of 6.31 digs per game, which puts her on pace to break the all-time single season digs per game record, which was set by former Warrior Kim Segrin in 1994.

The visiting Knights had Corban on the ropes in the fourth and final game when they grabbed a quick 7-point lead (11-4) before the Warriors began their comeback and outscored Warner Pacific by 10 points, 26-16, to end the match.

Warner Pacific was led by Erin Kinney’s team-high 18 kills, while Katey Carpenter and Michelle Allen added 16 and 13 kills respectively.  Kaylee Stone handed out a team-high 46 assists, while Allen anchored the Knights’ back line with a team-high 29 digs.

With the win, Corban improves to 5-11 overall, 5-7 in Cascade Collegiate play.  Warner Pacific falls to 2-15 overall, 1-11 in Cascade Collegiate play.  The Warriors are next in action on Saturday, October 15th, when they host the Thunderbirds of Cascade College beginning at 7:00 p.m.