Hood River Valley drops two NWOC volleyball matches

HOOD RIVER — Hood River Valley’s girls volleyball week started as expected Oct. 6, when the Eagles won at Parkrose in Northwest Oregon Conference (NWOC) play. But back-to-back league matches two days later at Wilsonville were, arguably, too much of an ask for the Eagles, who lost to the host Wildcats and then Putnam.

As such, HRV (7-12 overall, 4-8 league) finds itself in seventh place in the NWOC with two weeks — and four matches — remaining in the regular season. A 3-0 sweep a week ago and first-year Coach Emily Curtis’ team would be in the thick of the Class 5A state playoff chase.

Hood River swept Wilsonville when the two teams played Sept. 22, but the Wildcats controlled the Oct. 8 rematch, winning the first and third sets by comfortable 25-15, 25-13 margins. Hood River led midway through the second set, 12-9, as freshman Eleanor Buser went on a service run, varying the depth of her serves, which threw off Wilsonville. The Wildcats recovered, posting a 7-0 run to seemingly take control of the set. But HRV battled back, closing to within 24-23 before Wilsonville’s Grace Thomas delivered a set point spike.

The Putnam sets were close throughout, but HRV’s game was off just enough — as might be expected playing back-to-back matches. When they would usually be delivering placement hits to take advantage of the Putnam defense, the Eagles were sending over free balls.

Hood River led for the last time at 12-11 in the first set before Putnam used a 5-0 scoring run to get some space between the two teams. The Eagles did close to 20-17, but were outscored, 5-1, the rest of the set.

Set No. 2 was a similar result. Hood River was within a point at 14-13, but Putnam scored 11 of next 14 points to pull away. HRV battled valiantly in the final set, erasing a 21-10 deficit and, later, fought off six match points during Tia Britt’s service run before losing, 25-20.

Hood River, which beat Parkrose on Oct. 6, — 25-16, 25-14, 19-25, 25-10 — has two home matches remaining: Oct. 14 vs. Centennial and Oct. 23 vs. Milwaukie (senior night).