Sweet Home’s volleyball team lost in three games to then-No. 1 Sisters Thursday evening, Oct. 8, but Coach Mary Hutchins was happy with how her Huskies played.
“It was a really good game,” she said of the 25-10, 25-12, 25-15 match. “We had a goal, how many points we wanted to score and we made that.”
Though the final score doesn’t indicate it, Sweet Home was competitive, forcing some extended rallies and even leading in the second and third games.
“We were trailing 18-15 in the third game, then they scored the next six points on our errors,” Hutchins said.
“The girls want to play them again. They were pretty excited.”
Ally Tow finished with five kills and Kayley Lopez had five blocks, while Josie Knight had three.
Knight and Molly Fisher served up nine points each.
Sweet Home is currently fifth in the Sky-Em Conference with a 2-5 league record, one game behind Sutherlin (3-4), which the Huskies face on Tuesday, Oct. 13. Junction City, with whom Sweet Home has a split, is 4-3, and Cottage Grove, which will visit Sweet Home Thursday, Oct. 15, is second behind undefeated Sisters with a 5-2 record.
The short of it is that Sweet Home would have to win its next three matches and get some big miracles from other sources to get into the state tournament.
The Huskies are ranked 23rd with a 4-10 record due to the fact that all but three of their matches have been on the road and they’ve played the state’s toughest teams, some more than once.
Seaside Tournament
For the Seaside Tournament on Saturday, the Huskies, who had Homecoming the night before, got up at 4:30 a.m. for a four-plus-hour bus ride, then beat Astoria and Gladstone in pool play before losing to 15th-ranked Cascade by two points – on two bad serves.
Sweet Home made the championship bracket for the second time in three tournaments, where they faced No. 1-ranked Banks (following a loss by Sisters to Valley Catholic), losing the first game 25-16 after a spirited fight, before losing 25-8 in the second.
“Even against Banks, they were in there battling and fighting,” Hutchins said. “I actually thought they played really well. I was impressed.”
She said another coach at the tournament noted that the Huskies are a lot better than their record indicates.
“That’s why our ranking is as high as it is,” Hutchins said. “Because we’re playing strong teams. We’ve played the best of the best.”