Sweet Home’s volleyball team has stayed unbeaten in Oregon West competition, but it will get another big test in the next week as they take on rival Sisters, whose only league loss was to the Huskies.
Last week, Sweet Home went down to the wire with third-place Philomath on Tuesday, Oct. 2, winning a tough three-game battle on the road, then speedily dispatching Stayton by the same score on Thursday, Oct. 4.
Against Philomath, the Huskies opened with a 25-15 victory in the first game.
“They didn’t do a whole lot against us in the first set,” said Head Coach Mary Hutchins. “We just rolled through it. I kept waiting for them to wake up and I knew they were going to because they had some really good games against some other teams.”
The Warriors did wake up in the second set, getting their rhythm going and throwing off the visitors, who had trouble adjusting, Hutchins said.
“We had to get used to their style. They have a lot of height and they block really well.”
Sweet Home was down to a set point before it tied the score at 24-all, then battled through a couple more set points to finally win 30-28.
That did it for the hosts, as the Huskies stayed in the lead throughout and “kind of took care of business” in the third set, 25-21.
Hutchins said her team played good defense, finishing with 73 digs and a hitting percentage of 28 percent as a team. Although their serve-receive “wasn’t the best,” she said, they served 96 percent and notched 11 aces over the course of three sets.
The win was important, since the Warriors are in third place and needed an upset.
“It was kind of a must-win game for us,” Hutchins said. “I was glad we were able to take care of business and not let that one go.”
Against Stayton, which had given two of the state’s top teams – Hidden Valley and North Marion – a run for their money in tournaments, and had taken games off both Philomath and Sisters, Hutchins said she expected more than Sweet Home got.
The Huskies won 25-11, 25-12, 25-8,
“We were really geared up,” she said. “We just ran our system, just kind of had control the whole time.”
In the third set, the teams were tied 7-7 when Hutchins told her players that they need to clamp down and limit the hosts to 10 points.
“They only scored one more point,” she noted. “I was proud of them.”
Sweet Home (9-0, 16-2) will visit Cascade (3-6, 3-10) Wednesday, Oct. 10, then will host Sisters on Monday, Oct. 15. The Huskies will finish the regular season at home against Newport the following Wednesday, Oct. 17.