The Philomath High School volleyball team continued its impressive run through the Oregon West Conference Tuesday night with a 25-16, 25-17, 25-19 victory over visiting Newport. The victory clinched a perfect record for the Warriors on their first trip through the league slate.
Junior Shaylee May’s hitting (team-high 11 kills), senior Zoee Howard’s blocking (three) and senior Ashleigh Brown’s setting (18 assists) were all key contributions in the straight-set sweep.
Gallery: PHS volleyball vs. Newport (Oct. 8, 2024)
A collection of photos from Philomath High School’s three-set volleyball victory over Newport on Tuesday.
For Philomath to remain unbeaten through the second half of the conference season, head coach Whitey Rasmussen said her team will need to adjust to playing away from the home gym.
“We’re home all this week and then next week, we’re at Stayton and at Cascade so that’s a tough week — two very challenging matches,” she said. “They’ve worked so hard on finding the energy, finding the pace of the match and then sticking with it and then sticking with playing their own version of volleyball and what our game plan is.”
The team tried to work toward perfecting the game plan during the 0-7 start and then started seeing results with victories over all five opposing teams in the conference.
“If we can stick to that, I mean, the sky’s the limit for sure.”
Taylor Hudson, a PHS junior who has positively impacted the team’s play at the net, said the team has turned things around mentally.
“I think in the beginning when we had our first game against the Huskies, we were thinking ‘oh great, we’re going to lose again,’” Hudson said, referring to Philomath’s conference-opening match Sept. 24 against Sweet Home. “But then we won our first set, second set and it was ‘wait, we’re actually good. … I think now that because our coach has pushed us more saying ‘I think we can be better,’ I know we can go to state … that gives us the confidence to keep it going.”
Philomath got off to a bit of a slow start in the match vs. Newport, trailing 9-5 at one point before taking control. Down four at the time, PHS took a timeout and then responded with a sideout on a May kill. May then served the next three points — sophomore Nora Stanley producing on a couple of soft hits and then a Newport serve-receive error — to tie the set at 9-9.
Newport senior Natalie Paranto broke the scoring run with a hit for a 10-9 Cubs lead. But Philomath got a sideout on a Newport hit into the net and followed up with five straight points with junior Avery Smith at the service line. Howard came up with a block to give PHS an 11-10 advantage and the Warriors never trailed the rest of the way.
“It’s always hard when you play a team whose caliber is a little bit lower than yours so you try to figure out how to keep the momentum up and keep the energy up and not play down to that level,” Rasmussen said. “So it was mostly about, ‘OK, we’ve got to speed things up and get things going before it gets away from us.”
Philomath put together a few shorter scoring runs together with junior Isabelle Muir and Stanley serving and clinched the first-set win on a hit by senior Kynlee Albin that Newport couldn’t handle.
Newport again had the lead in the second set and it remained close through the midway point. Trailing 14-13, Philomath got a sideout and then scored seven straight points with Brown serving. Newport helped the cause through struggles with its serve receive and other unforced errors, including a couple of illegal hits.
Hudson’s hit on the 21st point gave the Warriors a seven-point lead. The two teams traded points the rest of the way with Philomath clinching the set on a Newport hit that landed out.
In the third set, Philomath never trailed. Another scoring run with Smith serving helped the team increase its lead from two to six points. Newport had a minor threat by getting back to within 13-10 but the Warriors scored seven of the next eight points to take control. Stanley and Brown both had serving runs.
Philomath scored the final two points on a Stanley kill for a sideout and then a Muir serve that Newport’s defense hit backward.
Hudson converted on a few occasions in the win over the Cubs, including what could be described as quick reaction shots that produced points.
“I want my opportunities hitting but I also want my teammates here, too, so if I can get the ball up so they can have their opportunities then I’m going to give it to them,” Hudson said. “All I want in the end is for us to win and have fun together.”
Newport dropped to 3-11 overall, 1-4 in the Oregon West.
The Warriors (6-10, 5-0) will host Sweet Home (3-11, 2-3) at 6 p.m. Thursday.
