By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– The Sprague-Jesuit rematch lived up to the hype on Thursday night.
The two squad’s met in the 6A State Title Game this past Fall with the Crusaders taking the game. The Olympians took their August 29 match-up at the Central Catholic Tournament in three sets entering this non-league game at Sprague High School.
Both teams split the first two sets, Sprague taking the first and third sets with Jesuit taking the second and fourth respectively.
“When you play against a high-caliber team like Jesuit, it’s always going to be a fun game. It’s always going to be high-energy. It didn’t go our way this time, but hopefully next time we meet up with them, it’ll go our way and we’ll be able to fix those things and improve upon what we did tonight,” said Sprague Head Coach Anne Olsen.
And what they did right on this evening was showcasing the potential that they’re capable of. The team chemistry was there for them to come out strong in the opening set, taking that 25-19 and rebound after dropping the second set 25-12, to take set three 25-18.
Jesuit was able to pull away from the Olys in the fourth set and built a 3-0 lead to open the fifth set, but Sprague battled back to tie it up at six. It was just those little things down that popped up here and there like being aggressive at the net or making the pass, that went against the Olys down the stretch in this one that allowed Jesuit to take the match 19-25, 25-12, 18-25, 25-20, 15-8 on Thursday.
But with that, comes a good measuring stick. Fix those things and things could have gone a little more differently for Sprague. And they have plenty of time for that as they kick off Central Valley Conference play on Tuesday against West Salem.
“It shows us that we got so much more to grow, we took Jesuit to five and it was a great game. We can grow more as a team and get better together. I’m excited to have a rematch with them at some point,” said Eliza Lohrman. “We just learn to come together as a team and grow as a team when we’re in those tough moments like a fifth-set like that, come together as a team and rely on each other.
“That was a fun preseason game. I really enjoyed it. I know my team did, we’re not done. We’re not letting that define us as a team.”
The Olys enter the first loop through league with a 7-1 record as they head over the bridge to play the Titans. First serve is at 6:30pm
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
