Benny Westcott
The Sweet Home volleyball team earned an even split in last week’s action, going 2-2 in four games. On Tuesday the Huskies lost at Marshfield 12-25, 13-25, 15-25. Then they stormed back to beat Madras at home 25-7, 25-9, 25-19 on Thursday. The weekend brought the Cascade Tournament, in which the Huskies first beat North Marion 25-18, 25-14, but then lost to Pendleton 19-25, 25-16, 14-16. The week’s action brought Sweet Home to 4-2 on the season.
Speaking on the Marshfield game, Head Coach Mary Hutchins said “The scores do not indicate what a good game this was for our team to work on overcoming challenges. The first challenge was a long bus trip going there, and then there was the mental challenge knowing they are the returning state champion with the same roster.”
The coach said “We came out the first two sets blocking and rallying and playing a ton of defense. We dug several hard balls hit with velocity. Overall it was a great experience showing us all the things we need to work on to compete in our challenging league.”
Of the Madras game, she said “Madras was a home game and we had an incredible crowd. Even though we controlled the pace of the game I would like to see the girls execute a bit more cleanly off serve receive and free ball transition. One of the big positives of the night was that we had several players go on very controlled serving runs, showing that they can mentally keep the ball in play and sustain that. That’s a goal we have for our coming league play.”
In the tournament, some of the games were in “pool play,” which means they don’t count toward Sweet Home’s official record, but rather determine seeding into bracket play.
Sweet Home played Marshfield again in that format, losing both sets. “We didn’t play with the intensity we had earlier in the week, even though the scores were similar,” Hutchins said.
Sweet Home then beat North Marion in straight sets, a performance they would repeat later in the day in bracket play. After that, the Huskies split sets with an Astoria squad that Hutchins called a “solid team.”
“We battled hard with Astoria and were able to win a close set,” the coach said.
She called the loss to Pendleton a “heartbreaker.”
Overall, Hutchins said “Our takeaways from the tournament are that we got to see most of our league teams in North Marion, Stayton, and Cascade and we can see we have a very challenging time ahead of us. We also were able to pinpoint many things we need to work on to be able to compete in our very challenging upcoming league season. We need to focus on everyone staying mentally tough, being consistent on defense, and reading the ball early off the hitter’s hand. We need to shore up our consistency and not allow big point swings or momentum runs from the other team. When we have momentum we need to sustain it and use it to our advantage. We will keep working hard in the weeks ahead.”