Things turned around last week for the Sweet Home volleyball team as the Huskies evened their league record at 2-2 with wins over Cottage Grove and Elmira, both at home.
Coach Alicia Meier said she thinks the line-up her team used at the Sisters Tournament the previous weekend, which resulted in a win over Yamhill-Carlton and a close loss to Henley, a top-10-ranked team, may have made a difference.
“I feel like we got a good line-up,” she said. “We’ve also got some key seniors on board to be leaders. I finally decided just to have Mackenzie Cochran as lobero, which stabilized the backfield and have the freshmen set. They’re working hard. We have got kind of a consistent line-up.
“They’re getting more confident. Everybody knows their roles now.”
Sweet Home 3, Cottage Grove 1
Sweet Home won the first two games Tuesday against Cottage Grove 25-22, 28-22, then let the Lions back into the match, losing the third game 25-21. But the Huskies pulled it out with a 25-22 win in the fourth game.
Ally Tow finished with six kills, with Madi Barringer and Josie Knight adding five more each.
“Madi is getting a lot more aggressive,” Meier said of othe sophomore. “She brings so much energy, it’s awesome.”
Sierra Thayer was 16 for 16 from the service line, while Jordan Miller was also perfect on her 12 serves. Cochran finished with eight digs in the back row.
Sweet Home 3, Elmira 0
Against Elmira on Thursday, things went south for the Falcons quickly. Their best player injured her ankle during warm-ups and things went downhill from there – at least until the hosts got sloppy.
The Huskies won the first game 25-5, but the other two were closer – 25-19 and 25-18.
“We let them come back,” Meier said. “We made silly mistakes that tough teams don’t make. It was nice to see their confidence, but they were definitely losing focus.”
What did go well was service. Barringer had 10 aces in 31 attempts as she hit 97 percent of her serves.
Meier said hitting statistics from the match were not available but Tow and Miller, along with Barringer, provided energy at the net.
“Jordan Miller has really been stepping up for us,” she said.
Sweet Home, in third going into Tuesday’s matches, is back on the road Tuesday at Sutherlin, 3-1 and 11-4 as of Monday, then will host league leader Sisters (4-0, 15-1) Thursday.
“Our league is just all over the place,” Meier said. “Junction City had to forfeit their match with Elmira and Cottage Grove beat Junction City. We lost to Junction City but we beat Cottage Grove. It’s crazy.
“I think if we can pull this out at Sutherlin, it will be really good for us.”