After a season-opening loss at Junction City, Sweet Home’s volleyball team clicked off four straight victories going into this week.
The Huskies lost 3-1 to Junction City on Sept. 2, then won their home opener against Molalla on Sept. 4 3-2 in a see-saw match.
On Saturday Sweet Home swept three opponents in the Cascade Tournament, beating Seaside 2-0, then blanking Junction City by the same score before downing Tillamook 2-1.
Junction City 3, Sweet Home 1
Coach Katie Dargis said her team struggled at the service line against the Tigers in the first match of the season, dropping their first two games 14-25, 19-25, before they came on stronger at the end of the match, winning 25-18 and just losing the last game, 22-25.
“We missed a few too many serves,” Dargis said, noting that she’s been encouraging her players to be more aggressive as they serve, “but we went a little over there.”
Karissa Jewell was 94% in 17 serves and led the team in serve-receive passing with 21, while Trinity Victor was 3 for 3 from the line.
Kaitlyn Kennedy finished with three aces and 18 total serves in the match and also led the Huskies in kills with 13 and 17 passes.
“The fact that they are passing that ball so efficiently helped us out,” Dargis said.
“I think we got a lot of first game jitters out, got comfortable a bit more in our rotation that we were just new at, and going through and making adjustments to that as we could, so it was a good good start to the season even with the loss,” she said.
Sweet Home 3, Molalla 2
In front of the home crowd, the Huskies went to work against Molalla, winning 25-14, 20-25, 25-17, 20-25 and 15-7 against an opponent that wouldn’t stay down.
“I was really happy for the girls, getting first home game win under their belt because that first home game they are kind of nervous playing for the first time in the season in front of all their peers,” Dargis said, adding that the crowd support helped her players.
 The serving was stronger this time, with Natalie Smith finishing with four aces and a total of 14 serves, Kira Johnson with three aces and a total of 21 serves, and Kennedy also had three aces and 16 total serves. Jewell finished with 22 serves overall. “We had a lot of girls that were very efficient for us at the serving line, putting balls in play and giving tough balls over the net to help us,” Dargis said. Aubrey Newberry had 11 kills and a total of 23 attempts, Amara Gonzales had nine kills off of 22 swings, Kia Johnson had eight kills off of 23 swings and Aaliyah Brown had nine kills out of 25 swings, while Kennedy finished with 15 kills out of 42 attempts “so Kaitlyn got fed that ball a lot in that game,” Dargis noted. “We also dug the ball well – overall (Jewell) had like 28 digs. Cascade Tournament Statistics were not available Monday for the tournament, but Sweet Home beat |
Seaside 25-17, 26-24 and Junction City 25-17, 25-23 before dropping its first game of the match to Tillamook, 23-25, then rebounding to down the Cheesemakers 25-18, 15-11.