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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Guide Weather Subscribe Contact Us November 22, 2004 Another Raider regional crown By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Southern Oregon assistant coach Leaf Jensen had a premonition. Jaclyn Hamilton-Smith made sure it came true as the Raiders dramatically retained their title as king of Region I volleyball. Raider senior Kristin Ferris (4) celebrates with teammates Haley Phillips (center) and Kristen Lilly during the NAIA Region I championship match Saturday afternoon at McNeal Pavilion. Southern Oregon won its fourth-consecutive regional championship by defeating Northwest in five games. Andrew Mariman Ashland Daily Tidings Southern fought off two Northwest match points to pull out a 24-30, 33-31, 30-23, 26-30, 17-15 thriller Saturday at McNeal Pavilion and capture its fourth straight Region I tournament championship. The victory, which SOU head coach Paul Elliott labeled the best in his 14 years in Ashland, also secures the Raiders' fourth straight trip to the NAIA National Championships, Dec. 1-4 in San Diego. Spectacular but inexperienced, the freshman Hamilton-Smith smashed two clutch kills with the match on the line in Game 5 - the first saved SOU's season and the second extended it. Her spike to the floor tied the decisive fifth game at 15, and two points later she did it again to clinch the match. Later, Hamilton-Smith said Jensen predicted the fabulous finish. "He came up to me after the third game and said, 'I had a premonition,'" Hamilton-Smith said. "He said, 'You're going to get (the) match kill,' and I was like, 'Oh, that's silly,' and once I got that all I could think about was, oh my gosh, his premonition came true. It was just an amazing feeling." A classic While the first four games had their moments, it was the epic Game 5 that made the match an instant classic. Twice, Northwest (22-8) had 21st-ranked SOU on the ropes and both times the Raiders (26-6) clawed their way back behind the clutch play of two unlikely heroes. First, sophomore outside hitter Rachael Baran had two kills and a block to spearhead a 7-0 SOU run that turned a 9-6 deficit into a 13-9 lead. Then, Hamilton-Smith finished the job. The No. 5-seeded Eagles looked in prime position for the upset as it abused SOU's block en route to the three-point lead. The top-seeded Raiders answered with their best run of the day, but Northwest didn't flinch. Instead the Eagles used a five-point run of their own to earn their first match point at 14-13. On the ensuing point, SOU setter Jamie McCreary set up junior middle blocker Nicholette Le Bel on the left side. Le Bel, who had 16 kills and four blocks, smashed the ball through two Northwest blockers for the tie. The Eagles snatched the momentum right back and earned their final match point on a kill by Emily Marquez, who led all hitters with 23 kills on 61 swings. That's when Hamilton-Smith took over, overcoming a case of the freshman jitters in the process. "I was nervous, I was sweating, I was hot, I was timid," Hamilton-Smith said. "I didn't know if I should swing hard, tip, chip, but J-Mac [McCreary] told me, 'Jaclyn, you're going to swing at the ball, we'll cover you so just swing.' So I swung." The final kill set off a tear-filled Raider celebration with family and friends that lasted about 15 minutes. SOU senior outside hitter Kristin Ferris had a look of disbelief on her face, Hamilton-Smith clenched her fists and whirled around. Elliott watched it all from the sideline, expressionless. "It was just a great amount of pride for both teams," he later said of his reaction. "You know, a lot of times you get in those matches and one team doesn't reach their potential because they try to do too much. I thought both teams played well, they did what they wanted to do and played the way they wanted to play and that's why you get a match like that." Many leaders While Hamilton-Smith and Baran carried the Raiders in Game 5, it was McCreary, Le Bel, Ferris and junior libero Kristen Lilly who put the Raiders in position to win in the first place. Ferris had a team-high 20 kills and 28 digs a day after becoming the first Raider to accumulate over 400 kills and 400 digs in the same season. Lilly got up a team-high 30 digs, including several of the diving variety, breaking SOU's all-time single season dig record in the process. "And this was supposed to be a so-called rebuilding year," Elliott quipped. Northwest's Dayna Casseday led everyone with 39 digs. SOU narrowly avoided a two-games-to-none deficit and created the first swing of momentum at the end of Game 2. After Northwest blew a game point on a contact violation, the Raiders scored three of the next four points to tie the match. That momentum carried into Game 3, which SOU controlled from beginning to end. The Cascade Conference rivals went back-and-forth in Game 4 until Northwest used a 4-1 rally to take a 19-16 lead - its first decent separation since early in Game 2. SOU didn't lead again until Le Bel walloped home a spike to give the Raiders the first point of Game 5. Despite the fact that SOU struggled all day to contain Northwest's high-flying attack the two teams finished in a statistical dead heat. The Eagles finished with 79 kills on 269 swings (.167), while the Raiders had 82 kills on 263 attacks (also .167). Both teams had 122 digs. SOU made up some ground in the serving department. The Raiders had four aces and three service errors, while the Eagles had five and eight, respectively. On to nationals Now the Raiders will try to transfer their regional success into wins at the national level. The previous three trips have been bitter-sweet for SOU. The Raiders have gained some upsets, but have yet to advance beyond pool play. The draws were not available at press time. "I think (our chances) are pretty good," Ferris said. "We just beat Carroll (Friday), who's ranked 13th, so I really think we're up there. It's just going to be a matter of us bringing our game and seeing what happens." Elliott agreed, but added that a lot will ride on where the seeding committee places the Raiders. "I think we're going to do really well," he said. "We've got to try to get a draw that isn't like the last few years, but we're (ranked) 21st coming in so we're probably going to be ranked a little lower. Although, they know who we are and they know that we've surprised people before so we'll see what they do with us. "We need to get into the elite eight for sure and see where we go from there." DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Slippers Isotoner Slippers Dsw Shoes Ceramic Piggy Banks Fanny Mae Eloans Calenders 2005 Calender 2005 Accelerate Weight Loss Programs Citibank Student Loans Acs Loan Matchmaking & Dating Scripts Adventure Travel Conference Calls - $50/Month Security Systems student loan consolidation helzberg diamonds Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams