Crook County's Jennifer Roth (left) battles against Ridgeview's Shelby Abbas (7) and Delaney Hampton during Tuesday night's match in Redmond.

REDMOND — Crook County coach Rosie Honl was happy to just leave with a win on Tuesday night. But it took a knock-down, drag-out fight to get out of Ridgeview High victorious.

The much-anticipated matchup between the Cowgirls and Ravens — ranked second and third, respectively, in the Class 4A OSAA rankings heading into the match — went to five games after four close sets. But it was the reigning 4A state champion, Crook County, that came out on top 25-21, 20-25, 25-18, 20-25, 15-9 in a 4A Special District 1 volleyball contest.

According to Honl, it was the freshmen that stepped it up against the Ravens’ senior-heavy lineup. Freshman Aspen Christiansen racked up 20 digs, had one ace and was 19 for 20 from the service line, while fellow newcomer Abby Smith led the Cowgirls in assists with 31.

“The highlight of the game for me was the digs against the hitters,” said Christiansen, Crook County’s libero.

The upperclassmen for the Cowgirls (13-1 overall) also did not disappoint. Senior Hannah Troutman had 24 digs, 16 kills and three aces, and senior Kathryn Kaonis finished with 14 kills. Junior Karlee Hollis had 16 kills and two aces, and junior Kayla Hamilton recorded 26 assists.

Thanks to those performances, Crook County earned a hard-fought five-set thriller against what Cowgirls’ assistant coach Jessica Cross said was one of its biggest challengers.

“Winning against Ridgeview was huge. This is (like) a crosstown rivalry for us,” said Cross, comparing the intensity of the intercity matchup.

Christiansen said that the Cowgirls played well but not at the highest level. She added that there were several digging goals that were not met in certain situations.

“We were not playing at our best and it was definitely one of the toughest games,” Christiansen said. “We didn’t meet all of our goals in some games, but we did make up for it in other games.”

According to Ridgeview coach Debi Dewey, the Ravens lost momentum in the third set, noting that Ridgeview (12-1) needs to work on maintaining and increasing that edge.

“We had some errors that I would have liked to have cleaned up, especially in the first game,” Dewey said.

Brianna Yeakey had 14 kills and eight digs for Ridgeview while going 13 for 13 from the service line. Katie Nurge was 24 for 25 serving and racked up 34 digs. Katrina Johnson led Ridgeview with 12 kills, and Chloe Ross had 10 kills. Rhian Sage helped out with 44 assists.

“Overall it was quite an epic battle,” Dewey said. “They are two great teams and they battled really hard.”