In what was undoubtedly their most exciting match of the season thus far, the Hood River Valley High Eagles (3-4) recorded a come-from-behind 3-2 non-league win over the Class 4A Banks Braves (1-6) Sept. 14 at Banks High School.
The match was the final non-league tune-up before HRV entered Intermountain Conference play Sept. 16 at Redmond’s Ridgeview. There would be no comebacks in that match for the Eagles, who lost in straight sets.
Against Banks, the Eagles started slowly, dropping the first two sets, 25-15 and 25-21, before responding with an impressive comeback. The Eagles, guided by Coach Courtney Harvey, started out strong in the third set with Casey Beaman, Lauren Spontaner and Emma Kroll each scoring to help HRV build an early 8-2 advantage.
“It was a pretty cool win for sure,” said Harvey. “I don’t think there’s a lot of teams who can fall behind and lose the first two sets and then come back and play with the energy level to win three sets in a row. It was a great comeback and I’m proud of my girls for doing that. It was pretty amazing the way they pulled together after being down and come back to win it. I was a little worried after falling behind, because sometimes it’s hard to find the grit and the fire to be able to do that. You just have to believe that you can come back.”
The teams traded points and the Eagles were on top 11-5. Senior Kayla Sheasby then served two consecutive aces to help extend the Eagle lead to 13-5. The Eagles’ momentum continued as they built their largest lead of the set at 21-10, forcing a Banks timeout.
Banks trimmed the margin to 21-15, forcing an HRV timeout. The Eagles then regained the momentum with a 3-0 run to get set point at 24-15 on a hard hit by Beaman and they held on for a 25-18 win.
“The other big is Marina Castenada and Ryan Rosselle are two really big players for us, but they didn’t have very good games,” said Harvey. “We had to go to our bench and have players go out on the court who normally don’t play very much, and they came in and did a great job. They don’t usually start, and they came in played all the way around for us and they got the job done. The girls who knew that they were not having a very good game were cheering their teammates on from the bench and they were excited to be doing that.”
The Eagles then played even better in the fourth set as Beaman served seven consecutive service points, including two aces, putting HRV up 9-1 and forcing a Banks timeout. The two teams then traded points as HRV remained in front 15-6, forcing another Banks timeout.
“As a coach, nothing makes you feel more proud than knowing that these girls are all happy to be playing with each other,” said Harvey. “It doesn’t matter who’s playing, because they’re just trying to get a good outcome and that was so nice to see. When you get down, it’s really hard to pull together and come back like we did. This team is very special team though and they’re a fun group of girls to work with. They all love each other, and they love to play volleyball. They always pick each other up well and they really want to win. I think in close games players have lots of anxiety and when they have that, it can cause them to make poor decisions. We’ve been focusing on trying to relax and be calm when we’re playing, and that’s what the girls did. They went out there and got the job done, so it was really cool to see.”
A kill by Castenada, a sophomore, put HRV in front 16-6 and the Eagles maintained a double-digit lead the remainder of the contest. HRV got set point at 24-10 on an unreturned serve by Spontaner. Kroll then had a set-winning tipped ball to the floor, giving HRV a 25-10 win, knotting the match 2-2 and setting up a thrilling set 5 tiebreaker.
“We were all very happy for sure to see how our team pulled together at the end to come out on top,” said senior Lauren Spontaner. “It was a really fun game. I think our team is pretty good at coming back. We always help make each other feel upbeat by playing with a good attitude and a high energy level no matter how far behind we are. It was a super fun game; our seniors played great, and this is just a really fun group of girls to be playing volleyball with.”
In an exciting set that included five lead changes and six ties, Banks appeared be on the verge of winning the match while building a 14-12 lead to force an HRV timeout. The Eagles clawed their way back and Beaman’s kill knotted it at 14-14. A Banks hitting error put HRV up 15-14, and then Beaman pounded a game-winning kill for a 16-14 Eagle victory.
“I think we pulled things together pretty well and it worked out good for us at the end of the game,” said a happy Beaman. “I think everyone was pretty out of it and not ready to play early in the match. Then we kind of pulled it together at the end of the second set and we figured everything out. I’m really very happy that we came up with the win.”
The Eagles traveled to Central Oregon Sept. 16 to meet the Ridgeview Ravens (1-0 IMC, 3-2 overall) in the opening match of their 10-game Class 5A Intermountain schedule and lost 3-0. The Eagles played in an eight-team tournament Saturday at Sherwood and they lost 2-1 to the Class 6A Century Jaguars (6-3) in the bracket round of the event.
HRV began a grueling schedule with four matches in 10 days, including Tuesday’s IMC road game against the No. 5 ranked Crook County Cowgirls (1-0 IMC, 5-1 overall) (result was after the printed edition deadline). The Eagles meet the No. 8 ranked Redmond Panthers (1-0 IMC, 6-0) in their next game Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at Hood River Valley High School. HRV then meets the No. 9 ranked Pendleton Buckaroos in a 6:30 p.m. match Sept. 28 at Pendleton High. The IMC is one of the strongest leagues in Oregon with three of six teams ranked in the top 10.
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