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Battle for the basement ends in Forest Grove
win
TV journalist takes time to visit GFU golf
team
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Bucks: `We were just clutch' |
St. Paul comes through in key matches against West
Valley Christian and Perrydale and now sits in second place in the
league |
By B. Scott Anderson, Newberg
Graphic sports editor
E-mail Scott at banderson@eaglenewspapers.com
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PERRYDALE — Wins don’t come much bigger than
the two the St. Paul High School volleyball team earned Thursday.
In a key matchup that is likely to decide the Casco League district
tournament playoff fate of three teams — St. Paul, Perrydale and
Willamette Valley Christian — St. Paul managed to fare the best of
all three as it not only captured two wins, but set itself alone in
second-place in the league after all three entered the night with
identical 10-3 records.
“We were just clutch,” St. Paul coach Shannon Court said. “We were
great with our serves. We were consistent and I’m just so proud of
them. Our seniors tonight were leaders out there. They wanted it and
they were inspirational and did great.”
St. Paul had its toughest match first — Willamette Valley
Christian. The teams split the first four games before the Bucks
took control in the pivotal fifth game to capture the 17-25, 25-21,
21-25, 25-15, 15-10 win.
In the fifth, St. Paul went up 4-0 before a WVC timeout. On Julie
Drescher’s kill down the line, St. Paul was able to keep its
four-point lead, this time at 10-6. Later, an ace by Erika Wilmes
gave the Bucks a 12-6 lead and St. Paul seemed poised to pick up the
win.
But the Warriors, a team that defeated St. Paul in five games
earlier this season, battled back and pulled within 12-9 before
another kill by Drescher. An ace by Katlyn McKillip gave the Bucks a
14-9 lead before a WVC service error gave the Bucks the victory.
“It was tough because we lost to them the first time, so there
might have been a little intimidation there and they don’t let
anything drop, but we didn’t let anything drop either,” Court said.
“We were right there and the girls just played so well. We were
hitting everything down and our front row was a huge presence.”
Court said the Bucks never thought they had the match wrapped up, even
after playing so well in the fourth game and rushing to a
comfortable lead in the fifth.
“We know better than to underestimate WVC because they’ve beat us
the last time in the fifth game when we had them down by six
points,” she said. “We got to 14 and the girls were excited. We had
a lot of desire tonight.”
Michelle Wilson led St. Paul with eight kills; Drescher had seven
and McKillip had four. Brittani Brown added six blocks and four
kills in the win.
St. Paul moved on Thursday to face Perrydale, a team St. Paul
defeated in five games Sept. 5 during the first match of the season
for St. Paul. After an up-and-down first game, St. Paul went on to
win 30-28, 25-18, 25-16.
Wilson had 10 Kills and five aces. Drescher had three kills, three
aces and a block and April Ackerman had five aces. McKillip added
three kills for St. Paul.
The best game of the match was the first. St. Paul seemed it would
cruise to the win when four aces by Wilson gave the Bucks a 22-15
lead. Perrydale, however, rallied for nine of the next 11 points to
tie the game at 24-24. From there, the teams traded leads until a
kill by Wilson and Drescher’s ace secured the win for St. Paul.
Perrydale was unable to recover. St. Paul led by as many as 10
points in the next two games before it secured wins.
Court said the key to the win was putting St. Paul’s two 6-foot
blockers — Janelle Drescher and Brown — in Perrydale outside hitter
Shannon McMillan’s face all night.
“That really took something off her hits,” Court said. “Plus, it
gave our back row so much more time to adjust. I think that was
definitely key.”
The Bucks entered the night off Tuesday’s 25-7, 25-17, 25-21 home
win over Country Christian. Wilson led the Bucks with six aces and
seven kills; Julie Drescher added three aces and six kills.
The Bucks return to action today (Saturday) with a 9 a.m.
tournament at Dufur. It returns to Casco League play Monday at Falls
City at 5:30 p.m. for its final regular season match. |
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From
Oct. 21, 2006, Newberg Graphic
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