Outlaws host volleyball tournament

The Lady Outlaws hosted 25 teams in their annual Sisters Tournament.

Twenty-four teams were from Oregon and Melba High School joined the fray from Idaho.

Valley Catholic defeated Crook County in the championship match, and Cascade and Melba tied for third place.

Coach Josh Kreunen told The Nugget he felt the Outlaws played well the entire day, despite the fact they were without injured outside hitter Kathryn Scholl.

Sisters did especially well at the service line. Alli Fogarty had three of the Outlaws’ eight aces in their first match of pool play against Madras. Haven Heuberger recorded 12 kills, Audrey Sybesma and Paityn Cotner tallied eight kills each, and Ali Gibney added three. Sybesma also recorded two blocks in the match. Holly Davis dished out 34 assists.

Against Banks in the following match they racked up 14 aces, led by Jordyn Monaghan and Brooklyn Cooper, who tallied three each, followed by Fogarty and Davis who had two each. Gibney led the team with six kills. On defense, Monaghan recorded eight digs, and Fogarty and Emma Long added seven digs each. Davis finished with 21 assists.

In the third game of pool play, Sisters matched up against Mazama. In addition to good serves, the offense did well. Sybesma posted eight kills and two blocks, and Cotner tallied six kills, two aces and four digs. Heuberger finished with five kills, and Gibney added three kills and an ace. Fogarty contributed seven digs and an ace, and Davis 25 assists and two aces.

The Outlaws qualified for the Gold Bracket and took on Cascade. They lost 18-25, 23-25, and 14-16 in a hard fought battle.

In the first set Sisters did a good job at both serve receive and at the service line.

“Holly (Davis) spread the ball around well with five players finishing with two or more kills,” said Kreunen.

The last two sets were a battle both ways and to the very end. Sisters was down 11-14 in the third set and came back to knot it up 14-14 before Cascade put up two consecutive points for the win.

Earlier in the week, on Tuesday, September 10, the Lady Outlaws defeated Redmond 25-15, 25-17, and 25-15, in a match held at Crook County. Sisters started off slow against Redmond and quickly went down 1-6, but from there was able to turn it around and win in three straight sets. 

Kathryn Scholl finished with 15 kills, four digs, three aces, and one block. Heuberger recorded seven kills and Sybesma added five kills. Monaghan tallied nine digs and served up three aces. Davis posted 33 assists, four digs and four aces. Long had five digs in the match.  

They immediately followed with a second match against the Crook County Cowgirls, and fell in four sets with scores of 27-25, 14-25, 25-27, and 24-26.

It was a totally different story against Crook County. The Outlaws struggled with receiving the serve, but held on for a slim two-point edge for a first set win. Kreunen stated that smart hits from Heuberger and Scholl, and big blocks from Sybesma and Scholl helped close out the win.

Sisters quickly found themselves down 4-13 in the second set. The Cowgirls played great defense and made it tough for the Outlaws to score, and again Sisters had a tough time on serve receive, seemed to scramble throughout the set, and lost by 11.

They did a bit better in the third, but still lost the set by six. 

In the fourth set, the Outlaws trailed until towards the end of the set. Fogarty went back to the service line with Sisters down 16-20 and took the Outlaws to a 23-21 lead. Sisters committed two back-to-back errors, and the set was tied 23-23. It knotted up again at 24-24 and then the Cowgirls were able to score two consecutive points for the win.

Sisters seemed to scramble the entire match, struggled with serve receive, and committed numerous unforced errors which definitely had an impact on the match.

Heuberger finished with seven kills in the match. Scholl also recorded seven kills. Monaghan tallied eight digs, and Fogarty added five digs and three aces. Davis had 22 assists in the match.

Sisters was scheduled to play at Siuslaw on Tuesday, September 17. They will wrap up their week on the road at Harrisburg on Thursday