LA GRANDE — North Lake won its first-ever OSAA/OnPoint Community Credit Union 1A state volleyball title Saturday night, beating No. 2 Dufur 25-22, 20-25, 25-20, 25-23 at Eastern Oregon University.
“It was a battle, that’s for sure,” North Lake coach Kayleigh Fivecoat said. “It’s just been wild. They weren’t going to give it to us.”
The fourth-ranked Cowgirls (20-5) beat Damascus Christian in the quarterfinals and swept Central Christian in the semifinals to earn their trip to the title game.
Dufur (23-4), which went into the title match on a nine-game win streak, was in the tournament for the first time since 2014. They previously won titles in 1996, 2004 and 2005, but could not add another title to their resumé.
“Take nothing away from North Lake, they showed up and played a great game,” Dufur coach Crystal Pechanec said. “They were scrappy getting it up and over. They had a great game. We definitely made a lot more mistakes than I was hoping.”
North Lake opened the championship match with a win, but dropped the second set as the Rangers were every bit as good as they were advertised.
“They have three very, very good hitters,” Fivecoat said. “They were picking our defense apart. Once we settled in and calmed down, we were OK.”
The Cowgirls relied heavily on their six seniors over the four sets. Fivecoat said it was good it didn’t go to a fifth set.
“We needed to win in four,” she said. “We had no legs left. Dufur put up a good fight. It was a great match.”
Pechanec said the Cowgirls gave her team fits at the net.
“They had two really good middles who hit at angles, and they had an outside who we tried to adjust to,” she said. “It kind of got in our heads. We wanted it so bad. I think we were a little timid at times.”
Pechanec said her team was disappointed, but she put a good spin on their performance.
“The girls were upset, but I told them I was proud to be second,” she said. “All I wanted was for us to play our game, and we did. There was a lot of support there from both communities, which was awesome.”
Acacia Roth led the Cowgirls with 19 kills, while Dillynn Puckett had 14, Viktoria Baker 13, Emma Baker 12 and Cynthia Tobiasson five.
Roth and Viktoria Baker were named to the all-tournament first team, while Emma Baker was selected to the second team.
Dufur’s Hailee Pechanec was a unanimous all-tournament selection, and was joined on the first team by teammate Cadence Young. Ainslee Eiesland was named to the second team.
Viktoria Baker and Pechanec were the Moda Health Players of the Game.
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