Sweet Home’s volleyball team was swept in its pre-league season, losing a heartbreaker to Central 2-3 on Sept. 6, 3-0 to Philomath in its home opener Sept. 11 and 1-3 on the road at Stayton Thursday, Sept. 13.
Some good news for the Huskies is that Head Coach Alicia Meier’s first child, Max, was born early – on Monday, Sept. 10, so she expects to return to the bench earlier than originally planned.
“I think it was the bus ride to Central,” she joked last week.
Central 3, Sweet Home 2
Meier said the Huskies played “pretty well” in their season opener at Central, winning the first game 25-19, dropping the second 25-16, and then coming back to edge the Panthers in the third, 26-24. But the Panthers made a late comeback to take the fifth game 15-13 after winning the fourth 25-20.
“A lot of good things came out of that game,” Meier said. “We still had breakdowns, a lot of smaller mistakes.”
Philomath 3, Sweet Home 0
Against the Warriors, Sweet Home “just didn’t play well,” Meier said of the 25-8, 25-15, 25-15 loss. Philomath is an experienced team and played at a faster pace than most of the Huskies were used to.
“We couldn’t get any rhythm going,” she said. “Our weaknesses are blocking and lack of height and that hurt us there.”
Stayton 3, Sweet Home 1
The Huskies won the first game at Stayton 25-20, but things fell apart after that as the Eagles took the second game 25-20, then edged the Huskies 30-28 in a marathon battle before winning 25-14 in the final game..
Sweet Home faces La Pine at home this week on Tuesday and will travel to Sisters on Thursday. Meier said she was hoping to get back to practice early this week to assist Mary Hutchins, who has been heading the team in her absence.
“I think La Pine will be good for our confidence,” she said. “Then we’ll go to Sisters. They’re a good team, so we need to be able to play our game, be consistent.”