THE GORGE — Hood River Valley showed glimpses of its potential early on against visiting Sandy on Oct. 7, when the Eagles took the first set against the Pioneers before losing, 3-1, in Northwest Oregon Conference girls volleyball.
The Class 5A Eagles (6-10 overall, 4-4 NWOC) never trailed in the first set after a spike for a point by Eleanor Buser tied things at 7-7. HRV covered the court and kept its mistakes to a minimum in building 15-10 and 19-11 leads. Each advantage led to Sandy timeouts. After the second break in the action, Tia Britt served an ace for a 20-11 HRV advantage.
Sandy scored six of the next seven points, but an Amelia Gabriel hit to the open court pulled the hosts ahead 23-18. HRV closed out the first set when Madi Huckaby set up Britt for a hard shot which Sandy could not handle.
The Pioneers (12-5, 7-1), who entered the week in second place in the NWOC, bounced back quickly. They won the next two sets, 25-16, 25-12, and Lena Smith’s winner gave them the final point of the night at 25-10.
Hood River opened last week with a 3-0 win over Putnam (2-18, 2-7). The Eagles are in fourth place in the NWOC through Oct. 11; the top two teams in league play automatically qualify for the 5A state playoffs.
Bruins drop two
Columbia High (6-6, 3-5 Trico League) lost to league leading and the WIAA’s Class 1A third ranked team, La Center, 3-1, last week and also lost a non-league match to visiting 2B Toutle Lake. The Oct. 6 match at La Center (12-1 overall, 9-0) was a good test for the Bruins, who lost 3-0 to the Wildcats on Sept. 15.
La Center won the first two sets, 25-14, 25-15, but Columbia kept battling and limited its mistakes in the third set. A kill shot by Taryn Wallace gave the Bruins an 8-7 lead and they wouldn’t trail the rest of the set. An ace by Lola Marti led to a La Center timeout at 16-12. Back-to-back winners by Fiona Grabb and Joella Posini, and a combo stuff block from Posini and Julia Mullinix and the insurmountable lead was pushed to 20-13. The Wildcats won the fourth set, 25-13.
Each set of the Columbia vs. Toutle Lake (9-4) match was decided by eight points or less. Columbia won the third set, 25-17, which was the largest margin, but the Bruins couldn’t sustain any runs against Toutle Lake the rest of the match.
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