Playing under a new head coach and losing its first seven matches of the season, Philomath High School’s volleyball season got off to a suspect start. Outside of tournament pool play, the team failed to even win a set until the third week of the season in a home loss to Junction City.
But once the schedule transitioned into conference play, the team started to click. The Warriors secured their place at the top Tuesday night with a four-set victory over North Marion that essentially clinched first place in the Oregon West standings.
Gallery: PHS volleyball vs. North Marion (Oct. 22, 2024)
A collection of photos from Philomath High’s Senior Night volleyball appearance vs. North Marion on Tuesday.
With a win Thursday over Newport, Philomath will take the league title outright — a task that seemed improbable with the way the season started.
“I just can’t believe it,” said Zoee Howard, one of six seniors that played their final regular-season home match. “It’s just been a heck of a journey. I think we learned a lot as a team together, especially in the preseason, like we learned how to work together. We learned that we can trust each other, we can trust our teammates.”
Another senior, Hannah Bennett, believes those struggles through the nonconference portion of the schedule — which featured several very tough opponents — paid dividends.
“I think the preseason really helped us to learn about ourselves and the team dynamic,” Bennett said. “Then once league started, I think that we just really locked in.”
As far as the league standings go, even if Philomath (9-11 overall, 8-1 Oregon West) somehow stumbles against the Cubs and Cascade defeats Sweet Home to give both schools equal records, the Warriors can claim first place based on a season sweep over the Cougars.
In Tuesday’s match, the visiting Huskies (1-12, 0-9) surprised Philomath early by taking the first set but the Warriors settled down and won the match, 22-25, 25-12, 25-13 and 25-8.
“We come into North Marion and they’re not like the greatest team we’re ever going to face but especially after a win over Cascade, it’s like we have to come out and be ready to beat any team — especially if we’re going to go to state,” Howard said.
Howard was making a reference to the team advancing to the state tournament Nov. 8-9 at North Bend. The Warriors have qualified for the 4A playoffs with first-round matches to be played Nov. 2 at home sites of higher seeds.
Philomath entered the match following a wave of emotions during last week’s action. Third-place Stayton posted a convincing win in four sets over the Warriors but two days later, the team dug deep for a four-set win of their own over Cascade in a match with league title implications.
“I think our loss from Stayton just made us want to come back and beat Cascade even more,” Bennett said. “After Stayton, we were a little shook up but I think we came back bigger and better than ever.”
Howard said the loss to the Eagles served up a mental reminder about the need to focus hard on any opponent.
“Honestly, it taught us that we can’t overlook our opponents,” she said. “We came into the Stayton game thinking we were going to beat them just straight out of the game because we beat them at home. So I think that we hyped it up a little too much … and we weren’t ready to see them work — they came out attacking us hard and we had no answers.”
The answers arrived two nights later at Cascade.
Junior Shaylee May had a big night against North Marion with a team-high 16 kills. Juniors Nora Stanley and Taylor Hudson contributed nine and eight, respectively. Senior Ashleigh Brown finished with 23 assists and had three ace serves and junior Isabelle Muir also had three aces. Elsewhere on the stat sheet, senior Madison Provance had a team-high six digs and Howard had a block.
As the final regular-season home match Tuesday evening, the Warriors recognized its seniors during pregame activities. Along with Bennett, Howard, Brown and Provance, other seniors include Kynlee Albin and Olivia Rice.
“Tonight was about them more than anything,” said PHS coach Whitney Rasmussen, who started an all-senior lineup. “They are an amazing group that has worked so hard this year to achieve success for their teammates. Every single one of them has a different role on the team, none more important than another’s. They impress everyday with their perseverance, understanding their irreplaceable roles on the team, and determination to make the team better no matter what it takes.”
