In a fitting end to Thursday evening’s volleyball marathon against Stayton, the Philomath High girls pulled out a five-set victory when senior Hannah Bennett’s serve glanced off a player in the opposing team’s back row, hit a teammate and fell to the floor.
The Warriors let loose with a celebration in what ended up as a 20-25, 25-21, 16-25, 27-25, 15-13 victory.
Warrior bats fall silent in 9-3 baseball loss at Pendleton
The Philomath High School baseball team fell into a 6-1 hole in the first inning and couldn’t get much going offensively in a 9-3 loss at Pendleton on Saturday afternoon. The Warriors (4-4) come home with a split on the trip to the eastern section of the state. The team defeated La Grande by a…
“We gave everything and we just focused on next point, next point,” sophomore Nora Stanley said. “Even if we won the last point, we’ve got to move on to the next point and focus on just building up a foundation. And then, relaxing and letting loose and having fun is important, too. I think we did a great job of that as well.”
Serving proved to be an important area of the match and the Warriors appeared to be ready in their assault against Stayton’s defense. Coach Whitney Rasmussen’s scouting included talking to people, studying film and figuring out how to take advantage of her team’s strengths vs. the opposition’s weaknesses.
“Honestly, we prepared for it. … yesterday (Wednesday) in practice, we served a ton,” Rasmussen said. “We knew that we could get them on serve receive and defensively if we just put balls where we knew they wouldn’t be. … We figured out that if we could serve harder at them, then we could come away with a win.”
Stanley’s performance included 24 kills and four ace serves — both team highs.
“I try to pick on girls sometimes when I see that they’re struggling a little bit just to try and get the momentum focused on our side,” Stanley said. “So, yeah, it was really beneficial for us that they were struggling on serve receive tonight. I think we took advantage of that really nicely and served some really great spots.”
“To try to go into league with any momentum after a tough preseason is just really hard,” Rasmussen said, a reference to the team’s 0-7 record in nonleague matches.
In addition to the high-quality opposition, Philomath had its own intrasquad disruptions to work through, including senior Ashleigh Brown’s absence in the rotation because of an injury.
“We had to bounce back as soon as she got back to our original rotation,” Rasmussen said. “I’m really proud of them.”
The Warriors needed to work through the fear factor, the coach said.
“They’ve really been working hard on playing fearlessly,” Rasmussen said. “We were playing scared a lot because we were playing teams that were a higher caliber than us. If you play scared, you start playing just defensively instead of saying ‘I can hit the ball just as hard so I’m going to go hit the ball just as hard’ so that’s what’s really come along this week for sure.”
Philomath found itself down 2-1 after losing the first and third sets. In the first, Stayton was clinging to a 20-19 lead but scored three straight to seemingly take control. Philomath broke the run on a block by junior Taylor Hudson but Stayton closed it out on back-to-back kills by Eagles sophomore Kathryn Samek.
In the second set, the Warriors pulled away after the set had been tied 7-7 early on. With junior Isabelle Muir at the service line, Philomath took a 12-7 lead. The Warriors later scored eighth straight points with Stanley serving. Stayton’s serve-receive struggled and PHS junior Shaylee May had a couple of point-scoring hits during that stretch.
Stayton did put together a rally late but the Warriors closed it out on a Stanley hit into an Eagles block that landed wide.
Phliomath led the third set 13-12 at one point when a Hudson desperation hit landed inside the line while Stayton players watched. But the Eagles responded with eight straight points to take control. The set ended with back-to-back unforced errors on a long serve and hit into the net.
With their backs to the wall, the Warriors fell into a 6-2 hole early on in the fourth set and things didn’t look good. Philomath fought back, however, and eventually tied it 10-10 with several tie scores and lead changes in the moments ahead.
Later with the score tied 18-18, Philomath made a key move and scored four straight points on two Stanley hits — the first blocked out of bounds and the second hitting the gymnasium’s ceiling on a power shot. The Eagles tried to break the momentum with a timeout but the Warriors went up 22-18 when a Stayton player’s hit landed wide.
With the help of some PHS passing and hitting issues, Stayton battled and went to match point with a 24-22 lead. The Warriors stayed alive on a Stanley hit and tied it on an Eagles violation. Philomath had set point at 25-24 but Stayton came up with a big point on a hit by senior Laina Atiyeh. The Warriors regained the lead at 26-25 on a May hit that Stayton’s blockers couldn’t handle. An Eagles player then tried to place the ball inside the line but it was ruled out and PHS won the set, 27-25, to set up a 15-point finale.
The fifth set went back and forth early on, including ties on the seventh, eighth, 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th points. Tied 13-13, Philomath scored the next two points to claim victory. Junior Avery Smith won a battle at the net on the 14th point and then Stayton had the serve-receive problem on the 15th point.
In addition to Stanley’s 24, May finished with 15 kills. Brown had 31 assists.
Philomath’s 2-0 start has the Warriors tied with Cascade atop the Oregon West Conference standings. Only one will be unbeaten after Tuesday with those two teams squaring off at 6 p.m. in the PHS gym.
Said Stanley, “We’re feeling good … we’re going to work hard in practice and get ready for that and just give it our 100% and hopefully take them down.”
