State title win completes unfinished business for Husky volleyball veterans

Benny Westcott

When Sweet Home’s volleyball players left the court after losing in the 4A state championship game to Valley Catholic, they made it clear they had unfinished business.

Saturday afternoon, April 10, they made good on that.

“We hadn’t even left the court after the conclusion of the championship game, and they were telling me, ‘We are winning it next year,'” said Head Coach Mary Hutchins. “They had so much determination, and I fully believed them.”

But due to circumstances no one could have foreseen at the time, there was no state volleyball tournament the next year, the fall of 2020.

But the Huskies didn’t let the dream die.

“They practiced and stayed motivated and ready throughout the long COVID layoff,” said Hutchins.

Sweet Home held practices in the gym last fall when permitted by OSAA rules, and the Huskies hosted an outdoor jamboree-style volleyball match on Husky Field because they couldn’t play indoors.

And less than two months ago, in the spring of 2021, they finally got their chance to really play. And they took advantage.

The Huskies (14-1) won the 4A state championship at Pleasant Hill High School Saturday, beating Sisters in four tightly contested sets. It was Sweet Home’s first-ever state championship in volleyball.

Sweet Home won 25-22, 25-20, 20-25, 25-19.

The championship also served as the rubber match between the Huskies and the Outlaws, who split their two regular season meetings this season.

Hutchins said the game plan going into the final was to “stay in system, play our style of volleyball, put up a consistent block, and cover shots in the court. We were going to play to win, without fear of failure or losing.”

The Outlaws were certainly no strangers to this Husky squad.

“We had a lot of film on Sisters and we have played them for years, so our girls know some of the players really well. We studied their systems and what they run,” Hutchins said.

Hutchins said that playing Sisters in the championship was “probably inevitable after all these years.”

“Sisters is, and will continue to be, a volleyball powerhouse and has been as far back as I can remember,” Hutchins said. “They are a part of that strong central Oregon volleyball culture and the opportunities to play are close at hand.

“It was a goal for years to beat Sisters. Just take a set off of them, not even win the whole match,” she said.

Four years ago, Sweet Home won a set against Sisters for the first time in many years. The following year the Huskies defeated the Outlaws in their own gym, ending a 76-game league winning streak for Sisters.

There were more victories in the 2019 season, as Sweet Home’s young players began to grow into the team they could be.

This time, Sweet Home was able to triumph when it mattered most.

Hutchins talked about the special atmosphere of a state tournament.

“I went to state on the volleyball team as a senior in high school,” she said. “I have never forgotten the experience. There is just a different feeling and energy at state. The energy on the court and the electricity in the air is just something that is hard to replicate.”

On Saturday, a crowd of Husky supporters, decked out in green and gold, contributed to the “electricity in the air” in the Pleasant Hill gym, which was chosen as one of the few neutral sites available for the final.

Senior Graci Zanona said that the crowd played a factor in the team’s success.

She said that the keys to Sweet Home’s victory were “keeping our energy up and having our crowd. We play stronger with a crowd.”

Zanona said the energy was different this time around, compared to when the team lost to Sisters earlier in the season on the road.

She said that in that loss to the Outlaws, who came into the match having played almost their whole short-season schedule against 5A and 6A teams in their own county, “we just didn’t have the excitement. We came into it kind of bland. This time we had the energy, and we just knew we wanted it.”

For senior Savannah Hutchins, the 1-3 loss to Sisters was a wake-up call.

“I think we just needed to work harder,” she said. “We knew we could beat them if we tried really hard. We just needed to remember that we are good, and that we can compete with them.”

She said the keys to her team’s success on Saturday was “working well together, being confident on the court, and knowing that we could win.”

Junior Adaira Sleutel-Burger said that communication was critical in the championship effort. “Without our communication with each other and the way we work with each other, we would be nothing.”

Sleutel-Burger said that throughout the season, the team had the attitude that “we were going to kill it this year. We were going to take it, no matter what.”

Of the title win, she said “It meant everything.”

She said that the game plan going into the final was to “go all out and leave it all on the court. Especially with Sisters, we wanted to take what was ours.”

Senior Bailee Hartsook, who will play next fall at Western Oregon, said, “We finally did it. It’s obviously always been a goal for us. But finally finishing through and doing it, especially against Sisters, was one of the best feelings in the whole world.”

Hartsook was unfazed after the Huskies dropped the third set in the final.

“I wasn’t worried,” she said. “I believed in us.”

Mary Hutchins called a timeout when the team was trailing in the third set to regroup.

“I pointed out to the team that a lot of what was happening, point-wise, was a result of our own errors and situations we were creating, not taking care of the ball on our side and making things hard on ourselves,” Hutchins said.

“We started playing tentative and “not to lose,” and I told them to play fearless because we were up two sets,” Hutchins said. “We needed to go now and put the pressure on them.”

“Our goal coming out of the timeout was to close the gap pointwise, get back in system, and build momentum for the probable fourth set,” Hutchins said.

Hutchins felt that her team responded. “We closed the point gap and were ready going into the fourth set,” she said.

When the game was finally over, Senior Maddee Housen said that she “felt amazing. It was long earned.”

“We’ve wanted this moment forever,” she said. “And we’ve practiced hard for it.”

Hutchins said that she is “very proud of these girls and all they have accomplished.”

“They love to play and would have loved a full season,” she said. “But along with everyone else, they were just very grateful to get to play, to get some spectators and get to wear their uniform and represent Sweet Home High School. They practiced to win, they played to win and they accomplished their goal.”

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