Facing a third matchup in the rivalry series this season between Cascade Christian and St. Mary’s, the Challengers reverted back to their winning ways Thursday night with a volleyball sweep to lock up the No. 1 seed out of the Southern Oregon Conference.

Cascade Christian claimed the league playoff between the teams, who tied for first place with 9-1 SOC records, with a dominant effort that resulted in a 25-19, 25-15, 25-20 victory on the Challengers’ home court.

Nine days prior, St. Mary’s walked away triumphant in a five-set match with the Challengers in the same venue, but the Crusaders couldn’t recapture that same magic Thursday.

“I think we were just focused,” said Cascade Christian head coach Rob Kleker on the difference between the last two meetings. “We served the ball well and kept a lot of pressure on them with the serve.”

“I felt like we were just a little off the last time,” he added. “I couldn’t necessarily put a finger on it, but this time they just came out laser focused to do what they wanted to get done and did the necessary things. We passed the ball well and the offense was pretty balanced, I don’t think we had anybody in double figures kill-wise but had six or seven across the board.”

Poppy Freeman led the Challengers (14-6) with nine kills, while Isabel McCauley had seven kills and Cascade got six kills apiece from Julia Brehm and Hadley Wilcox.

Isabel McCauley also joined Rylan Hunter in notching four aces apiece, while Brehm notched three blocks and Grace McCauley contributed 16 digs.

St. Mary’s (14-7) saw its six-match winning streak come to a halt after leading hitter Ada Bernard was held to 10 kills to go with six digs and three aces. Ella Yeamans chimed in with five kills and 15 assists, while Lexi Smith had seven digs and the Crusaders received four kills apiece from Sydney Holdermann and Lexi Mills.

Hunter and Reece Anderson dished out 15 assists and Hunter had 14 assists in a continuation of solid play this week for the Challengers, who scored a 3-2 upset of Santiam Christian on Saturday.

“Honestly, getting the win over Santiam Christian on Saturday was a big part of tonight, too,” said Kleker. “I think the kids kind of figured some things out there. We made a few changes defensively and found a blueprint that I think worked for us, and we carried some of that stuff over tonight as well. With Ada out on the outside, you have that hitter that’s pretty dominant so we made some adjustments when we were defending their big hitter and tried to apply all of that stuff tonight.”

The Challengers will be off until hosting a 3A state playoff match on Nov. 2, a feat created by earning a league championship despite Cascade Christian only being 12th in the 3A state power rankings.

St. Mary’s is scheduled to return to the court Saturday at South Medford.

SOUTH MEDFORD 3, GRANTS PASS 0: At Grants Pass, South Medford sealed a second-place finish in the Southwest Conference behind 24 kills from Mayen Akpan and eight aces, five assists and three digs from Julia Hansen in a 25-10, 25-13, 25-21 triumph.

Julia Slaughter recorded 27 assists, eight digs and two blocks and Daija Malcolm had five kills, four digs, two aces and two blocks for South Medford (14-10, 9-3 SWC).

The Panthers also got seven digs from Bailie Leslie and six digs from Peyton Keever in the win over Grants Pass (6-15, 3-9).

NORTH MEDFORD 3, WILLAMETTE 0: At Eugene, North Medford improved to 8-4 in Southwest Conference play to finish in third place, two games behind Sheldon and one game back of South Medford in the standings.

The Black Tornado moved to 16-8 overall with the 25-14, 25-14, 25-11 victory.

CRATER 3, SPRINGFIELD 0: At Central Point, Crater senior Alexa Gugliotta collected 14 kills, five digs and three aces and Lanie Snow had 12 kills, four aces and two digs to pave the way for a 25-11, 25-13, 25-23 Midwestern League victory.

Callie Aplin had 13 digs and three assists and Delaney Henke added seven kills, four digs and four aces for Crater (14-5, 9-2 MWL), while Harper Madson had six kills and Kendall Stidham contributed 37 assists, four digs and two kills.

Courtney Cox had three blocks, Addison Benson had three kills and Danica Huntoon returned from injury to notch four digs.

EAGLE POINT DROPS TWO: At Klamath Falls, Kady Ledbetter came up with 10 kills and seven blocks to lead Eagle Point in a five-set loss Wednesday to 4A Henley, 25-19, 25-23, 22-25, 22-25, 15-11.

Thianna Deng-Gomez added seven kills and three blocks and Madisyn Dean had 29 digs for the Eagles, while Blakely Schauffler contributed nine kills, 15 digs and four aces.

Karris Johnson also had four aces to go with 13 digs, and EP received 17 assists from Emary Haning and 15 assists from Evy Leonardo.

On Thursday, the Eagles (2-17, 0-11 MWL) dropped a Midwestern League match to Churchill, 25-7, 25-6, 25-10 despite four kills and nine digs by Schauffler.