Fantastic Redside journey comes to an end

“This is my family,” Hogenkamp said. “I am around them more than my real family and we have just grown closer and closer. I am so glad to be around them and experience this great accomplishment.”

Country Christian set the tone in this OSAA/U.S. Bank/Les Schwab Tires 1A Volleyball State first-round match with a 25-10 output in the opening set.

Staked with that momentum, the Cougars (23-3 overall) kept things chugging along in the second set, scoring a 25-14 win to jump ahead in the match, 2-0.

South Wasco County had its best scoring surge in the third set, but could not overtake Country Christian, losing 25-19 in the sweep loss.

In her final match, Hogenkamp had two kills, went 10 for 11 on serves with four aces, added a block and posted a 5 for 6 split on serve-receives.

Cassie Davis, also a senior, added four digs, went 2 for 2 on serves and was perfect on her lone serve-reception, and the third senior on the team, Tatum Hahn, was 6 of 6 on serve-receives.

Ally Muhleman had two kills, two blocks, seven digs and went 18 of 22 on serve-receives.

Allie Noland had three digs and went 7 of 7 on serves, Jada Myers went for a kill, an ace and Madisen Davis converted 7 of 8 on serves with two aces and went 12 of 17 on serve-receives, and Jacqueline Noland tallied a kill and went 4 of 5 on serves.

“The girls battled after a bit of a rocky start,” said SWC coach Donna Barton. “Country Christian is a very good team and I was proud of the way the girls settled in and fought.”

South Wasco County(16-13, 7-7 league) started the year by losing five of its first six matches, and then won seven of eight matches, including a Redside Tournament championship on Sept. 19 in Maupin.

After a four-match losing skid from Oct. 3-10, the Redsides restored order with six wins in their last six matches, including a Big Sky District play-in sweep over Arlington on Oct. 22.

After losing in five sets in their district opener to Dufur, SWC eliminated Condon-Wheeler in five sets to earn a state sub-round match.

On Oct. 28 in Portland, the Lady Redsides cruised past Columbia Christian to advance to Saturday’s state match in Molalla.

It was tough to come to grips with the loss, but Cassie Davis expressed pride in how her team meshed together down the stretch.

“We came to battle,” said Davis, a senior. “We are all proud of how far we have come because no one thought we would get here. Of course, we are sad it’s over, but we played true Redside Volleyball this year and as a senior leaving, I couldn’t be more proud.”

Losing Cassie Davis, Hogenkamp and Hahn will be tough to replace their leadership and skill set, but the Redsides have some young stalwarts such as the Noland sisters, Madisen Davis, Kyrsten Sprouse and Myers ready to build on the 2015 season, the first time SWC had advanced to state competition in a decade.

“There are lots of positives from the season we can take with us and use to build for the future,” Barton said. “We want to thank our seniors for a good season and wish them the best of luck in their future plans. We had a good run and we are looking forward to next year.”