Hood River Valley snapped a five-game losing streak with a crucial 3-2 win over Centennial on Oct. 3 in a Class 5A volleyball Northwest Oregon Conference match up at Hood River Valley High School.
The win by HRV (5-6 NWOC, 6-13 overall) keeps its hopes alive for a berth in the 16-team state playoffs that begin Oct. 28. Hood River, guided by first-year Coach Susie Preston, is seeking to qualify for the playoffs for the first time since 2018. The Eagles are in fifth place in the nine-team NWOC standings; the top four advance to the playoffs.
“The win over Centennial helped to keep us in contention for a playoff spot,” said Preston. “We still have a lot of work to do, but we still have a chance. It would be nice if some of the other teams in our league beat teams that we’re behind in the standings, because that would help us a lot in trying to get into fourth place.”
Seniors Abby Kelly (23 kills) and Marina Castaneda (13 kills), junior Karyna Marquez (12 kills) and sophomore Aspen Fridley (eight kills) had strong offensive performances for HRV. Senior setter Megan Griggs had 41 assists and she served 86 percent (25-for-29) with 11 aces.
“Megan Griggs definitely stepped up and did a lot of good setting and she kept her errors down to just eight,” said Preston. “Megan was on fire in serving and she actually played a great game.
“I’m hoping we’re going to play a similar type of game and have strong performances from all of our players on Wednesday.”
The Eagles have an important match up in a three-way, two-game schedule Wednesday against the Putnam High Kingsmen (6-5 NWOC, 6-11 overall) and the No. 6-ranked Wilsonville High Wildcats (11-0 NWOC, 12-3 overall) at Putnam.
Putnam is in fourth place in the league standings. The Eagles play the Kingsmen at 4:30 p.m., followed by a 6 p.m. contest versus the league leading Wildcats.
“Hopefully we can rise to the challenge and win a couple of games on Wednesday,” said Preston. “If we play like we did against Centennial, then I think we’ll have a good chance to do that.
“I’m really hoping that we’ll just continue to play more consistent volleyball. Unfortunately, we’ve had a trend to play good in only every other match though, so hopefully that won’t happen this week.”
Commented
Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles.