Oregon State
6-12,4-4WCC
Saint Mary's
5-12,1-7WCC
Freshmen Lead Way in Four Set Win Over Saint Mary's
October 24, 2024 | Women's Volleyball
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Big-time performances from a freshmen duo – Emma Lilo and Zaria Thornton – helped lead Oregon State to a win over Saint Mary's in four sets on Thursday night.
"I thought Saint Mary's gave us a good competition," said head coach Lindsey Behonick. "They pushed us to the edge … clearly they know that tips and rolls can be our nemesis. It's been really cool to see how this team prevails when teams go after it in a different way than we do. Offensively, I thought Zaria (Thornton) had a great performance as well as our outsides. It's a testament to our setters – running a consistent offense and spreading it out."
The pair led the Beavers (6-12, 4-4 WCC) in kills (Thornton's 14), assists and digs (Lilo's 26 and 12, respectively) on the way to a second consecutive win. Following up, fellow freshmen – Alara Doganyuz and Yasemin Narlioglu – also added 20 assists and 10 digs, respectively, in the effort. Thornton turned in an efficient night, tallying her 14 kills on 19 swings – good for a .632 clip.
Lauren Rumel added 14 kills and six digs while Annika Hester tallied 11 kills and five blocks.
Not seeing much separation until the final points, Oregon State pulled out the set win in the first at 25-23. Despite hitting .323 in the frame, the Beavers couldn't put away the Gaels for good until a Vivian Light ace and an Thornton kill ended it. Starting hot out of the gates, Thornton piled up five kills on five swings to kickstart her night.
Hitting in the .300s for the second consecutive set, the Beavers took their consecutive frame win by a five-point margin at 25-20 with a .333 clip. Falling behind 0-3 early, Oregon State took advantage of Gael errors with some timely kills from Annika Hester and Rumel to flip it to a 5-3 score and OSU never trailed again. Keeping the pace up, Thornton put up another five kills on as many attacks to hit the double-digit mark. Up three late at 23-20, consecutive kills from Hester sealed the set and put Oregon State a set away from a win.
Using one last timely 3-0 run, Saint Mary's fought off the Beavers' sweep bid, taking the third at 25-23. Alternating leads from being knotted at 20, the Gaels took advantage of a Hester error to give themselves a set point at 24-23 and served up an ace to clinch the frame. Offensively, the Beavers were held more in check, only hitting .132 with nine attack errors. Lilo kept things closer defensively with a set-best five digs.
Tallying 10 assists in the final set, Lilo capped off her night to lead the Beavers to an eight-point set win at 25-17. Deadlocked at 13 a side, a pair of Thornton kills highlighted a 6-2 run to spark the Beavers with an offensive push to a 19-15 lead – effectively putting it out of reach. Oregon State held steady to the lead down the stretch, even bringing it up to seven before Hester's match-sealing block set it to eight.
During the third set, Lilo joined some elite company, cementing her place in the program's top 10 for assists in a season by a freshman. She ended the night with 494.
The Beavers will close the weekend by hosting LMU on Saturday. First serve against the Lions is set for noon and can be seen on ESPN+.
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