Volleyball sweeps competition at home tournament

This year, the Hood River Volleyball Tournament consisted of a team field of four schools: Astoria, Seaside, The Dalles and Hood River.

HRV headed into the tournament coming off a 3-1 victory at The Dalles on Sept. 27.

In that matchup on Sept. 27, Katie Kennedy led the way for HRV with 20 kills and Emily Curtis followed with 16 kills.

The assist leader was Chloe Kurahara, who had 27 assists; Kennedy had 17 digs for the defense.

Two days later, the Eagles would open their home tournament with a rematch against The Dalles.

HRV had no problem knocking off The Dalles from title contention, winning in the semi-finals by scores of 25-10 and 25-14 in two-set match.

On the other side of the bracket, Seaside beat Astoria 15-11 in a third set to face HRV in the title game.

Before the victory over Astoria, Seaside had been on a four-game losing streak.

Right out the gate, HRV asserted its dominance over Seaside, beating the Seagulls 25-18 in the first set.

In the second set, Seaside “fought back,” said Hood River Valley head coach Scott Walker, and took a commanding 14-6 lead over the Eagles.

Despite being down by eight points, “we battled back into it during the second half of the set,” said Walker, and the Eagles flipped the script as they outscored Seaside 14-6 in the following 20 points scored to tie the game at 20.

Tied at 20, HRV scored three straight points and were only two away from securing their third tournament title of the season as they were up 23-20.

However, Seaside would take the following two points to cut the HRV lead to one, 23-22.

Last year, HRV lost to Ridgeview 2-1 in the championship match of the Hood River tournament, despite winning the first set.

Unlike last year, HRV would not head into a third and final set in the championship match on Saturday as they finished off Seaside by a score of 25-22 in the second set to take the 2-0 match victory.

The victory over Seaside marked the Eagles’ third tournament title of the season: Hillsboro Varsity Volleyball Tournament, Canby Volleyball Tournament and Hood River Volleyball Tournament.

HRV is currently 11-3 on the season, 3-2 in league play and eighth in 5A state standings.

At third in conference standings, the Eagles will have a huge game on Thursday, Oct. 4 with league and playoff implications against the number one ranked team in the league and fifth ranked team in the state, the Ridgeview Ravens.

The matchup between HRV and Ridgeview is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.