Central 25, 25, 25
Sweet Home 14, 16, 18
Opening league play, Val-Co volleyball powerhouse Central beat the Huskies in three games on Thursday at Central, but Coach Debbie Danielson saw the match as a reason to be optimistic about her team this season.
“We went three games, but we played much better than the scores show,” she said. Central won the games 25-14, 25-16 and 25-18.
They weren’t blowouts, but “we seriously played better than even those look,” she said.
Central is big, with one player at 6 feet, 4 inches, Danielson said, but the Huskies focused on not being intimidated by Central’s size.
“We played with them the whole time,” she said. Most points were hard-fought, with Huskies digging up Panther attacks in long volleys.
Central is the toughest team in the league, Danielson said. “They probably won’t go four games with anybody. We knew going in we’d have to be smart and try going around the block. We tipped short on them, and it worked on them.”
At times, the Huskies were able to take “them out of their system,” Danielson said. When that happened, Central struggled. In the second game, the Huskies led by six at one point before Central’s strong server came in and helped close the gap and take the lead.
The Huskies went into the third game strong, Danielson said. The team wasn’t down at all. Instead, the Huskies played their best ball so far this year.
All week, the young Huskies were getting better at something on the court, Danielson said. There was a lot of learning on the court. Central showed they could compete this year.
If they play the way they did at Central, “I think they should be able to get second,” Danielson said. “That means they have to play that way all the time.”
Jess Seiber led the Husky attack with five kills. The team served 88 percent, led by Paige Niemi at 100 percent with two aces. Alex Thompson served 93 percent with two aces. The team as a whole had seven aces.
“To get any aces on them is pretty tough,” Danielson said.
The team scored a two-point on serve receive, she said. That’s an average of the quality of each serve receive in the game. A rating of three means the ball was pass went directly to the setter. A rating of two means the setter had to move only a little while a rating of one means it was set by another player or the setter had to move a lot. A rating of zero means the team wasn’t able to set the ball.
Leading on serve receive was Sarah Rosa with a rating of 2.6. She passed 17 times.
On Sept. 4, the Huskies hosted Stayton, losing 25-20, 25-17 and 25-16. Seiber notched six kills on the game.
During the Sweet Home tournament over the weekend, the Huskies were defeated 25-19 and 25-15 by Creswell in pool play. The Huskies defeated Elmira 25-18 and 25-20 and split with Cascade, losing 25-10 and winning 27-25. In bracket play, McKay defeated the Huskies 25-20 and 25-23 to eliminate the Huskies. Sisters won the tournament.