Sweet Home’s volleyball team stayed in the win column last week with sweeps of league opponents Woodburn and Newport and a championship run at the Junction City Tournament on Saturday, Sept. 29.
Against Woodburn at home Thursday, Sept. 27, the Huskies made short work of the Bulldogs, 25-12, 25-10, 25-13.
“This team is definitely in a building situation,” Coach Mary Hutchins said, noting that the Woodburn coaching staff is “ working hard with the team to improve skill and just get court time.”
She said her team switched up its lineups to allow the girls to play different positions and work on different skills to keep things challenging, such as encouraging rallies.
At Newport on Tuesday, Sept. 25, Sweet Home came away with a 25-12, 25-10, 25-13 victory.
“Newport was very motivated and came out the first game very active and trying to score and terminate rallies,” Hutchins said. Her team seemed a bit “lackadaisical” as the match got under way, but “a quick time-out solved that” in the first game and the Huskies took care of business for the duration.
On Saturday at Junction City, Sweet Home played Siuslaw and Molalla in pool play, dropping one set to Siuslaw because “we were playing sloppy and making a lot of uncharacteristic unforced errors,” Hutchins said, noting that this was Sweet Home’s third tournament after six busy weeks of volleyball.
They faced Molalla in the championship round, winning 25-15, 25-10, then took on Junction City in the championship game.
The Tigers have been making late runs on teams and just missed upsetting No. 1-ranked Cottage Grove the week before “so we knew it was going to be a tough game,” Hutchins said.
It was. Sweet Home was down 24-20 in the first set, but “kept our composure” and won 26-24 thanks to some strong serving from Shelbey Nichol. Then, in the second set, they held off a late charge by Junction City to win again, 26-24.
The Huskies will be on the road at Philomath on Tuesday, Oct. 2, and at Stayton Thursday, Oct. 4.