Sweet Home’s volleyball team came away with a split last week after beating North Marion 3-1 on the road, then losing 3-0 to Stayton at home.
The loss to the Eagles moved them ahead of the Huskies in the Oregon West Conference standings going into this week, which ends the first half of the league schedule.
Sweet Home was 2-2 in OWC action, 9-7 overall, behind Stayton, which was 3-2, 6-8 to start the week. Cascade, ranked No. 2 in the 4A division, was 4-0, 10-4, and No. 3 Philomath was in second at 3-1, 9-4. .
Sweet Home 3, North Marion 1
After dropping the first set 22-25, the Huskies rebounded to win the next three, 25-23, 25-18, 25-17.
“We came away with a win, but it was definitely not our best performance,” Coach Katie Dargis said. “We struggled to be efficient in a lot of ways and just let a lot of mistakes happen that we could have had better control over a lot of drop balls.”
She said her players missed nine serves “which is a little too many” and struggled with serve receive.
Plus, the Huskies had 33 hitting errors, but still managed to win.
“The whole match was rough but overall they got better with each match that we played,” Dargis said.
Aubrey Newbery finished with five aces and Natalie Smith was essentially 100% from the service line, in addition to having nine kills. Kaitlyn Kennedy led the team with 11 kills and 22 digs.
Stayton 3, Sweet Home 0
On the road at the Eagles’ gym, the Huskies struggled again with errors in a 25-14, 25-12, 25-22 loss.
“We struggled to get our block up enough; they have some very strong hitters. They set the ball quickly. And so we had a lot of tough hits coming our way, and we did not serve tough enough,” Dargis said, analyzing the loss.
The good news, she said, was that Sweet Home only had six hitting errors in three sets.
“Hopefully, we can continue to work on serving tough and get more aces out of there,” she said, noting that the Huskies are also dealing with some injuries that have dogged them for “quite a number of games.”
Amara Gonzales has been out, though she is back on the floor for this week, and Johnson was out of the lineup for much of the night at Stayton.
“The girls come in with great attitudes to play the position they’re asked to play,” Dargis said.
The Huskies had 19 hitting errors to go along with their 19 kills in 89 attempts.
Newbery led the team with six kills and she, Smith and Aaliyah Brown were all perfect from the service line.
Stayton, she said, is “very athletic,” “but we will continue to work on giving them some tougher stuff back so we can take advantage of that and get them out of their system.”
Sweet Home hosts Philomath Tuesday, Oct. 7, then Cascade on Thursday, OCt. 9. Both matches start at 6 p.m.