The Sweet Home volleyball squad met some of the best teams in the state last week and it proved to be a learning experience for the Huskies, as they lost a close match at home to Sisters Thursday and then exited the Sisters Tournament Saturday at the hands of a very strong Burns team.
At the tournament, the Huskies got a slow start against Central, losing 21-11 and 21-14.
“It was real slow going, like we’d just rolled out of bed,” Coach Alicia Meier said.
The Huskies split with Yamhill in their second game of pool play, losing 21-9, before winning 21-15, then swept LaSalle 21-18 and 21-19.
Seeded eighth in the bracket round, Sweet Home met top-seeded Burns, a 3A team, and fell 25-17 and 25-16.
Burns ended up beating Sisters for the tournament title in two games.
“We played pretty good,” Meier said. “(Burns was) just a really good team. It was good for girls to play against team like that, which transitions well and everybody plays their roles really good, everybody talks and they hit it where you’re not. ”
In its league opener Thursday against Sisters, the defending state champions, Sweet Home won the first game 25-22, lost the next two games 25-12 and 25-23, won the fourth 25-20 and then lost the final game 15-11 after committing a series of several serve-receive errors in a row that the Huskies couldn’t overcome.
“They learned they can play with any team,” Meier said of her players. “They played really well. It was just good for them to realize what level they can play at. I think they were really upset that they lost that game. They were not intimidated by these girls.”
She said Megan Graville and Devyn Makin played well on the receiving end and passed “really good.” Graville led the Huskies with 12 kills, while Annie Whitfield added nine, Jamie Swanson seven and Brandi Trewin six.
Sisters won the JVI and JVII matches as well.
At Stayton on Tuesday, Sweet Home won in four games, 25-17, 23-25, 25-15 and 15-14.
“It was just kind of a really slow, controlled game,” Meier said. “Not anything very big.”
The Huskies, now 4-2 counting the Burns match, travel to Junction City (2-5) on Tuesday, then will host Cottage Grove (2-7) on Thursday.