Hood River Valley High School volleyball hosted its annual HRV Invitational Tournament Saturday. With home court advantage and momentum from recent wins against Hermiston and The Dalles-Wahtonka, the varsity girls went 5-1 in bracket play to advance to the championship rounds.
A 2-0 win against Parkrose in the semifinals was a turn of fate for the two teams, as the outcome was reversed at the Sept. 29 Parkrose tournament. The shutout paired the Eagles against the Bruins from White Salmon’s Columbia High School in the finals. Hood River won 25-21, 23-25, 15-12 to take the tournament title.
Next up, the Eagles traveled to Pendleton (9-0 league, 13-3 overall) Tuesday evening (results not available as of press time) and host Hermiston (3-6 league, 6-14 overall) Oct. 18 for their last home match of the season.
Saturday’s tournament highlights follow (provided by coach Scott Walker):
HRV started out strong, splitting with one of the best teams at the tournament, Rex Putnam, 25-16, 22-25. Meighan Frazier led with 10 kills on 17 swings and Amanda McCafferty had 20 assists. Kaili Duffy had three blocks and seven digs and the team’s best server was Cristina Henage with two aces and 17 serves.
The Eagles swept the next two teams in pool play. They beat Washougal 25-15, 25-12 and Amity 25-21, 25-3. Highlights against Washougal were Duffy with eight kills, McCafferty with 19 assists, Frazier with five perfect passes and Duffy with five aces. Sydney McHale also served well with four aces on 13 serves. Against Amity, Jessie Karr had four perfect passes, and McCafferty and Duffy both had three aces. Henage led the team with 2.5 blocks.
In the bracket play Hood River’s 5-1 record and points gave them the top seed. The girls moved on to play the second seed from the other pool, which was Parkrose. The girls took care of business with a 2-0 sweep (25-11, 25-19). Duffy and Mattson led on attack with seven kills each. McCafferty had 21 assists and the team tallied six blocks, with Duffy leading the way with two of her own.
In the other semi-final, Columbia (White Salmon) beat Putnam in three games in what turned out to be an exciting comeback win.
The final match saw Hood River come out strong with a 25-21 win led by Frazier with six kills. Columbia took the second game 25-23 and started strong in the third. Down 11-7 in the final set, Hood River took a pivotal timeout, after which they came out firing and outscored their opponents 8-1 to take the game and the tournament.
Frazier led the match with 12 kill for a team-high 38 kills on the day. Duffy had 36 kills and 23 digs overall. Mattson finished with 29 kills. McCafferty led the team on assists with 102 total.
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