Volleyball team loses two

The Sisters High School volleyball team lost to Central and to top-ranked Burns last week.

On Tuesday, September 13, Sisters lost to Central in a five-game, two-hour marathon. The Outlaws won the first game 25-19 and then lost the next two 17-25 and 28-30. Sisters battled back to win the fourth 25-21 but lost 11-15 in rally play.

Coach Chris Crosby told The Nugget that the third game was a big one.

“We were down 22-18 and could have packed up and let the game slip away,” said Crosby. “Instead, we made a fight out of it. We came up short but we gained momentum which carried into game four.”

Heather Schaab led the Outlaws on both defense and offense. She finished the night with 20 digs and eight kills.

“Heather’s playing at a pretty consistent level right now,” said Crosby, “and doesn’t make a whole lot of mistakes.”

Crosby said, “We learned a valuable lesson. If we want to beat teams at our same playing level or better we need to compete and execute every play.”

Two days later Sisters lost in three straight games to defending state champion Burns.

Burns was undefeated the entire 2004 season and still hasn’t lost a game in 2005. Burns is ranked number one in the state and at the beginning of the season Volleyball.com ranked Burns as one of the top 100 teams in the nation.

Of their match-up with Burns, Crosby said, “I was proud of the way we competed. We’d set two goals for the game: Be aggressive both serving and hitting and make five defensive plays where we covered our hitters. We met both those goals and that was good.”

On Friday, September 23, the Lady Outlaws host Yamhill Carlton in a varsity-only match at 6 p.m.

On Saturday, September 24, Sisters will host 16 teams at the Outlaw Invitational. Several top-ranked teams will attend, including Burns, No. 4 Estacada and No. 6 Marist.

The tournament will be round robin pool play in the morning and single-elimination bracket play in the afternoon. The championship match is set to begin at 4:30 p.m.