The No. 21-ranked Sherman County High Huskies qualified for the 32-team OSAA Class 1A volleyball state playoffs following a 3-0 win over the Dufur High Rangers in a Big Sky League district playoff game Wednesday at Condon High School.
The Huskies (12-3 league, 17-4 overall), guided by fifth-year Coach Karissa Gorham, reached the state playoffs for the first time since 2018. The Huskies will play the Big Sky West Division Champion South Wasco County High Redsides (14-0 league, 20-6 overall) in a 10 a.m. district tourney game Saturday at The Dalles High School’s Kurtz gym. Sherman will play in an Oct. 26 first-round state playoff game.
“It’s a really big win and we get to go to the state playoffs now, so everyone is pretty excited, and the girls are pumped,” said Gorham, who guided the Huskies to the 2018 playoffs in her first season at Sherman County. “We just have a really dynamite team, and we have a lot of girls that can hit, and I think that was the difference, along with having a really, really strong serving performance, too. We’ve never played at The Dalles High School, so we’re all excited about that and it will be a really cool experience.”
The more experienced Huskies, who have six seniors, had 19 kills, 14 aces and 12 digs. The much younger Rangers (two seniors, four freshmen), guided by Coach Jody Weaver, had nine kills, 22 digs, six assists and two aces. The contest marked the final game of the Dufur High School volleyball career for seniors Allie Masterson and Amelie DeArmond.
“We were the underdogs in the match, and we had a very young team,” said Weaver. “Overall, I think we improved a lot throughout the season. We played with teams at the end of the season that we weren’t able to hang with at the beginning of the season. We definitely had a lot of growth. I learned a lot from this season, and I know what we have to do to improve. I think the girls learned a lot from this season, too.”
“Allie and Amelie were very consistent all year with their performance and also with their great attitude,” said Weaver. “They both worked so hard every day, they hustled, and they were always very positive, while encouraging their teammates all the time. They’re both phenomenal human beings and we’re definitely going to miss them.”
In another Big Sky district playoff game, the Spray/Mitchell/Wheeler High Eagles (9-6 league, 12-9 overall) won 3-0 over the Glenwood/Klickitat High Eagles (11-6 league, 14-9 overall) Wednesday at Condon High School.
Glenwood/Klickitat Jaecee Hoctor said: “It’s not how we wanted the season to end. We worked hard during the season to get to where we are. We didn’t play well, and we struggled to get momentum and get ahead on the scoreboard.”
Klickwood was led by Alise Gimlin, who had four kills, 10 digs and a block. Bella Bensel (three digs, kill, five assists), Chloe Wenz (two kills, three digs), Jayla Avila (four digs, three assists, 13-for-13 serving) and Lena Theimann (four digs) also had key contributions for Klickwood.
The contest marked the final game of the Klickwood career for seniors Gimlin, Tiana Jackson, Knott, Allison McFall and Wenz.
Spray/Mitchell/Wheeler qualified for the state playoffs and will play the No. 18 ranked Ione/Arlington High Cardinals (11-2 league, 18-4 overall) in a 1 p.m. district semifinal game Saturday in The Dalles. Saturday’s semifinal winners play for the district championship Saturday evening.
Commented
Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles.