Sweet Home’s undefeated start to its volleyball season came to an abrupt end in its first league match, at defending Sky-Em champion Sisters, Tuesday, Sept. 20, but the Huskies bounced back Thursday to even their conference record at 1-1 with a three-game sweep of Junction City at home.
At the Sisters Tournament on Saturday, Sweet Home got off to a slow start and fell into the consolation bracket, but rebounded to win that bracket.
This week the Huskies play Cottage Grove and Elmira on the road.
Sisters Tournament
Sweet Home beat Central 21-18, 21-12 to open action at the Sisters Tournament Saturday morning, but the Huskies couldn’t change gears as they faced LaSalle and Banks, which played in the state finals last year, losing 17-21 and 14-21 to LaSalle, and then 17-21, 13-21 to Banks.
“We had a slow start,” Coach Alicia Meier said. “The girls had a tough time waking up. We just couldn’t get anything going.”
She said Sweet Home can play with those teams but “teams like Banks have good defense, serving, hitting. They’re confident. They just really read the court well and they put the ball where you’re not.
“It just showed us a lot of our weak points. It was a good experience for our girls to play them.”
In the consolation bracket, the Huskies came back to life, losing their first game 25-22 to Cascade and then beating the Cougars 25-11 and 15-7 to take the match.
“It was good that they came back,” Meier said. “Cascadia is a tough team so we’re matched up pretty well with them.”
Against Central again in consolation, the Huskies won the first game 25-17, lost the second 20-25 and finished the Panthers off 15-12 in the third. Then they beat North Bend 25-18, 25-20 to win the bracket.
Sisters faced Burns in the final, losing in a close three-game match.
Sweet Home 3, Junction City 0
The Huskies defeated the Tigers at home Thursday, 25-13, 25-20, 25-13.
Meier said the visitors’ youth created problems for them.
“Junction City actually has a really good front row line-up but they still really struggle in the back row,” she said. “They’ll be tough in the future but they’re still growing and developing.”
The Huskies took advantage of the defensive weaknesses, with Annie Whitfield registering nine kills, Megan Graville seven and Sonya Corliss five. Tiffany Miller contributed 28 assists.
Meier said Corliss and Brandy Trewin have begun to create more problems for opponents as middle blockers.
“Brandy has kind of hit her stride,” she said. “She just creates that much more efficiency, forcing one-on-one situations outside. Brandy and Sonya are getting a little bit quicker and their timing is getting better with Tiffany.”
Whitfield also served eight of the team’s 15 aces.
Sisters 3, Sweet Home 0
On the road against the defending league champions Tuesday, Sept. 20, Sweet Home’s perfect record came to a halt as Sisters downed the Huskies 26-28, 17-25 and 21-25.
Meier said her team lost focus after losing the close first game and the Outlaws took over from there.
“Sisters is always good,” she said. “Our girls came out so strong and looked so good. They had so many high hopes in that first game that they just couldn’t do anything after that. They just started making mistakes. Sisters was passing well and we were making a lot of errors. They were just digging stuff up.”
Trewin led the Huskies with four kills. Devyn Makin and Whitfield each had three kills. The team did well at the service line, notching six aces in the match.
“We just had too much invested in that first game,” Meier said. “I think the girls learned a lesson. It’s not over until we win three games.
“We’re equally matched with Sisters. If you play your hardest and lose, you can still come back in the next game.”