Ken Roberts
For The New Era
Sweet Home trounced the visiting Taft Tigers in three straight games Thursday, but the Huskies’ first league volleyball win may have come too late.
Earlier last week at Philomath, the Huskies put up a fight against the Warriors but ended up losing in four games, 18-25, 25-22, 23-25, and 17-25. It was a match they needed to win to stay in the hunt for second place in the conference. Now they must win the rest of their matches to achieve that feat.
Sweet Home had difficulty controlling Laura Schaudt, a 6-3 middle blocker who led the Warriors in both blocks and kills. Without her, Philomath struggled. However, the Huskies didn’t get their offense started until the second game when Sam Johnson and Paige Niemi combined for five early kills to stake Sweet Home to a small lead. Johnson helped add to that margin with three tough serves late. Leading 24-17, Philomath scored five consecutive points to make the game interesting. After a timeout, setter Alisha Huschka closed out the game with one of her patented dumps.
Though Johnson continued to be a strong force on offense for the Huskies, Schaudt always kept Sweet Home at bay with her dominating play to lead the Warriors to a close third game victory. Too many mistakes early cost the Huskies any chance of winning in the final game.
A balanced team game earned Sweet Home its win over Taft, 25-20, 25-11, and 27-25. In the first game, a five-point service run by Tasha Saunders built the Huskies a comfortable margin which the Tigers could not overcome. The mistake bug hovered over Taft the entire second game. Two early kills by Cassidy Sullivan and two late ones by
Johnson was about the only offense the Huskies needed.
The third game just about got away from Sweet Home. Leading 17-16, the Huskies let the Tigers reel off six consecutive points. Not to be denied, Sweet Home replied with their own six-point run during Devyn Makin’s service. Hillary McCartin had two important kills and Emili Riggs and Niemi each added one before Taft netted the last two points of the game.
“For us to come back from behind is big,” said coach Debbie Danielson, who felt the
Huskies did a better job of not playing down to their competition. “We’ve lost so many games by two points. It’s good to get a win in three games.”
Now the Huskies must prepare for the difficult task of winning their remaining games.
“We came together as a team in passing, setting, and hitting,” said senior captain Paige Niemi. “We’re going to have to keep our intensity level up and believe we can do it.”
Johnson, the Huskies’ leading hitter, knows the task will be tough but believes they are ready for the challenge, starting with Newport tonight at home.
“The Taft win has us stoked up for our next game,” she said. “We have to play good defense.”
Danielson wants to guard against thinking too far ahead and just play one game and one match at a time.
“We need to focus on the little things,” she noted. “Communication, covering hitters, keeping the ball in play. I think we’re going to get better each game.”
Sweet Home competed in their last weekend tournament of the year in Seaside.
Danielson said she was pleased that they played tough teams close in pool play, even though they had a 1-5 mark against Astoria, Hidden Valley, and Stayton. In the afternoon bracket play, they were narrowly defeated by host Seaside by two before losing a lopsided second game.