By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
MILL CITY, Ore.– In the opening two sets of Santiam’s 25-15, 25-13, 25-13 sweep of Sheridan, the Spartans put the Wolverines in a position to have to come back and respond. It was a challenge that Santiam accepted and succeeded at to move to 5-2 on the season and opening Tri-River Conference play with a win.
In those two opening sets, behind the Sheridan setters in Taylor Lugo and Ivy Mirabito the Spartans, in a similar boat as Santiam with both squads graduating eight seniors from last year’s respective squads, allowed their hitters to do what they do best. A work in progress for sure for their hitters to execute, points out Spartan head Coach Christopher Harmon, but Santiam was a good measuring stick for them as they begin TRC play this week.
“They were keeping us close. I wanted to go with fresh legs in the third set, so we switched Maggie Molina in for the third set. I like what we had in each of the sets, but I really want to get the hitters more aggressive and making sure that they’re going after those swings,” said Harmon of his setters. “Credit to Santiam. They’re scrapy, and they pick everything up. It’s so hard to get points against them because they’re digging every, single, thing out.
“We got some good notes and good film to look at, and hopefully, we can improve on when we play them again.”
It was that scrappiness that helped Santiam overcome their slow start to take the first two sets. It gave them the momentum for that third set when they started off on an 8-3 rally en route to completing that three-set sweep to close out the day.
“We knew that we had to get it done. We really pushed each other, and we knew that we were better than that. When we’re down, we can always get back no matter how far we are down,” said Santiam’s Maizy Downey. “We all work together really well. We’re all really good together, I think we work well together. So that was good for us to start off league good.”
The Wolverines will host Western Christian on Thursday while the Spartans head to Stayton to play Regis on Thursday.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
