Outlaws capture league crown in volleyball

The Lady Outlaws volleyball team tallied two more wins last week to capture the Sky-Em league crown.

Sisters has been a force to be reckoned with the entire season. The Lady Outlaws recorded seven consecutive sweeps and then faced a tough Elmira squad on Tuesday, October 16. The Lady Outlaws defeated the Falcons in four sets with scores of 25-19, 29-15, 25-15 and 25-19. Two days later Sisters earned an easy victory at La Pine and beat the Hawks in three with scores of 25-11, 25-13, and 25-11.

In Tuesday's match, Sisters faced a much-improved Falcon squad. The Lady Outlaws stayed focused and won the first set by six. The second set proved to be much tougher. Sisters lost the set by nine, their first set loss in league play this year.

Coach Miki McFadden said, "Elmira had a very raucous crowd and they were taunting our servers, which really threw us off for awhile. They're offensively strong and play great defense, and they made us play hard which was good for us."

The Outlaws came back and took the third and fourth sets, 25-15 and 25-19. In the final set, libero Savannah Spear made an outstanding defensive play that was the turning point in the set. Spear dove for the ball and totally laid her body flat out and got the ball up with a pancake. The ball bounced up perfectly off the top of her hand and Spear got the save.

Duree Standley had a very strong game for the Outlaws and led the team with 14 kills. Megan Minke had 12 kills and Nila Lukens added eight. Shannon Fouts dished out 40 assists and libero Spear tallied 10 digs.

McFadden was especially pleased with Standley and Fouts' performances.

"Elmira has some very powerful hitters, and Duree had some great blocks and overpowered the other team with her strong hits," said McFadden. "Shannon did a good job in selecting her sets. She moved the ball around to our hitters and picked the hitters that were hot.

"The hard match against Elmira was really good for us," stated McFadden. "We needed the pressure. We had some strong hits and they dug the balls. Except for the second set, we kept our focus and stayed with the rally until we could put it away."

Sisters defeated La Pine two days later, which clinched the league title.

The Outlaws' serving highlighted the night.

"La Pine had a lot of trouble returning our serves," said McFadden. "They also had trouble passing and keeping the ball in once they got it up. They gave us a lot of free balls."

Freshman Allie Spear was a perfect 20/20 from the service line. Standley served eight times with four aces and Katelyn Meeter finished 6/7 from the line.

Shannon Fouts made 19 assists and was 11/12 from the line.

Fouts has done a tremendous job as setter for the Outlaws the entire season and credits McFadden for her success.

"Miki has been training me for the last two years and has really been helping me with my technique," said Fouts. "It's not an easy skill to learn and I have to give Miki a lot of credit. Our team's passing and defense has also really improved, and that has helped me to be able to distribute the ball to our hitters more easily."

Megan Minke has led the team with kills all season, and Fouts told The Nugget that under Minke's leadership the hitters are much improved.

"The hitters hit smarter shots and are able to terminate the ball," said Fouts.

Minke attributes much of her hitting success to Fouts.

"Shannon and I have worked together for the last two years and we communicate well together," said Minke. "We've gotten really good together."

With the title secure and a shot at a state championship a real possibility, the team still doesn't want to look too far ahead.

"We really don't want to think beyond our next game with Cottage Grove on Tuesday," said McFadden. "We're working to get a good seed at the state tournament and we can't drop a match. We want to finish league strong."

Minke added, "Winning the league title was really good for us. Elmira was our biggest competition and made us realize we can compete at a high level, and that gives us confidence as we head into playoffs."

Sisters is 9-0 in league and 16-2 overall. The Outlaws were to face Cottage Grove at home on Tuesday, October 23, in their final league match of the season.