Ken Roberts
For The New Era
The Sweet Home volleyball team set its sights on their conference schedule with a feeling of optimism following their tough tournament at Sisters last Saturday.
Sisters Tournament
In a 16-team tournament that included six of the top 10 teams in the state, Sweet Home, for the most part, was able to play straight up with all its competitors, despite being locked into a tough pool draw in the morning.
Coach Debbie Danielson went into the tournament with the idea of evaluating strategy and deciding what works best for this team, as well as making minor tweaks to the line-up.
The Huskies opened with an always-strong Vale team, losing 23-25, 21-25. That was followed by the one match that Danielson simply had to tell the players to put out of their mind, a 3-25, 9-25 dowsing by Henley, which had a tall, strong front line.
?We played hard through it,? said Danielson, ?but Henley didn?t make a mistake.?
It was another case of the Huskies having to adjust defensively and keep their adrenaline flowing when facing a strong offense.
?We were slower getting to the ball,? said Hannah Swanson. ?We haven?t played against players that can hit down that fast. We weren?t quick off our feet.?
After that, they had to prepare themselves for the number eight team in the state, Wilsonville. They were able to challenge the Wildcats, but still lost 19-25, 23-25.
?All day long we played tremendously,? said Danielson, whose Huskies were without Ashlee Flanagan, their strongest hitter. ?We were not intimidated, even though some were big and strong all the way around.?
In consolation play, ranked at the bottom of the field going in, the Huskies matched up against Philomath, the number one seed in that bracket and a team that Sweet Home had split with in two other matches this year. The Huskies handled them with ease, 25-19, 25-18.
That earned them a matchup with Sisters, their first league opponent on Tuesday, again to be held at Sisters. Calling this the game that was the most fun, the two teams slugged it out before Sisters prevailed 25-23, 28-26.
Danielson had to make adjustments in the lineups, not only because of Flanagan?s absence, but also as a final prelude to the conference season.
?Our communication got better,? stated Danielson. ?The players had to play next to some players that they hadn?t played with before.?
Banks 3, Sweet Home 0
At home on Thursday, Sept. 22, Sweet Home played its toughest pre-league opponent in the number five rated Banks Braves. And they showed why as they shut down the Huskies in straight games, 25-16, 25-11, 25-15.
Throughout the first two games, the Huskies struggled defensively in receiving the serve or passing so they seldom got into an attack on offense. Banks didn?t show itself defensively at the start but used its offense to find open holes, often with dumps or tips to an open middle.
In the second game, the Huskies appeared defeated after some strong Banks serving and their own inability to get anything going. But in game three, the team came out with renewed energy.
The offense began to click with improved passing and three kills by Swanson. The defense also stepped up with blocks by Chelsea Gagner and Ashlee Flanagan, which the Huskies used to forge an 11-8 lead.
That is when the Braves ignited on all cylinders. Banks dug up some great Husky hits, extended rallies, and then finished them off with their own kills or stuff blocks. The Braves reeled off seven solid points, all with strong offense and good serves. After a quick side out, Banks pinned the Huskies back on their heels with another run of seven.
?We weren?t mentally ready,? said Danielson. ?This was the first time that we weren?t fired up the whole match regardless.?
The Huskies had not faced a team that could put together a stretch of points like Banks was able to do.
?Usually we will get back in the game by just scoring a couple of points,? said Danielson. ?But yesterday, when they got six or seven in a row, we didn?t know how to pick ourselves back up.?
Sweet Home 3, Newport 2
Solid serving saved the day for the Huskies in an intense match at Newport Sept. 20 that went the distance as Sweet Home finally sealed the deal with a 15-11 victory over the Cubs.
Momentum in this match kept shifting. In the first game, won by Newport 25-23, both teams struggled with consistency. Sweet Home took advantage of poor Cub serving to stay out in front most of the match and led 23-19 with the Huskies? most proficient server, Julie Burcham, on the service line. Newport had a fortunate break on a hit that trickled over the net and then the Huskies self-destructed, making four unforced errors to allow the Cubs to make the comeback.
In game two, Newport never served more than two balls on any possession as it continued to have serving problems and unforced errors of their own. Burcham was the only server in the game to have extended stretches of success, constantly keeping the Cubs pinned back with hard, deep serves. Jessalyn Seiber had four kills, all during Burcham?s serving rotation, which helped the Huskies rebound to a 25-19 win.
Newport came right back, putting up a strong blocking wall at the net to thwart the Huskies 25-17. On the other hand, the Huskies had a tough time blocking Newport?s attack and covering the open middle.
Momentum fluctuated one more time in the fourth game, again because of tough serving by both Burcham and Swanson, who rocketed the Huskies to a 13-2 opening surge. From there out, Sweet Home matched the Cubs point for point, ending with a 25-13 victory.
After a slow start, the Huskies? offensive machine began to roll. Perfect passes, perfect sets, and perfect hits were the rule of the game as Swanson and Flanagan were the most productive. The game ended on an extended rally, in which the Huskies put together three strong attacks, the final one by Gagner to end the night and push the Huskies record to 3-0 in head to head matches prior to the Banks contest.
Looking ahead
The Huskies are now into league play, starting with Sisters on the road Sept. 22 and followed by a home match with North Marion on Thursday.
The players and coach point to team unity that has been the base for total team improvement.
?I feel free more to swing away this year than I have before,? said senior Dani Thireault, whose play during the tournament both offensively and defensively was praised by Danielson. ?I know that if I get blocked, my team will cover and get the ball back up.?
Flanagan sees a growing confidence in the offensive attack.
?If we get the set in the right place, we know we can get it down? said Flanagan. ?We are ready for league. We are closer as a team. We haven?t set any goals, but we just want to be at the top somewhere.?
?We keep improving even when we lose,? stated Thireault. ?We realize what we need to work on to make us better and our confidence keeps growing every day.