NORTH BEND — Valley Catholic’s volleyball team makes training for mental toughness a key part of its regular workouts.
That showed Saturday night as the Valiants bounced back after losing the first set to top Marist Catholic in the 4A championship game of the OSAA/OnPoint Community Credit Union state tournament at North Bend High School.
The 21-25, 25-19, 25-23, 25-15 victory marked the third straight year Valley Catholic has been champion, though the first two came at the 3A level. Saturday’s final pitted two champions from last year, with Marist Catholic the defending 4A champ.
“I’m proud of them” said Valley Catholic coach Mary Kemper, who has now led the Valiants to six titles — three each in 4A and 3A as the team has bounced up and down between classifications.
The match was a showdown of teams marked by powerful hitters and stingy defenses.
“One of my assistant coaches said they are our doppelgangers,” Kemper said. “We’re very similar teams. Even the energy we have is similar.”
The difference in the championship match?
“I think it was our defense,” she said, pointing to libero Gabi Velasco and repeating “defense” three more times. “Our defense and our serve receive and passing.”
That, Kemper said, enabled the Valiants to “get the ball to Maeve as often as we did.”
Maeve is Valley Catholic middle blocker Maeve Albert, a powerful senior who peppered Marist Catholic’s defense with a variety of smashes and well-placed tips, just as she had in the quarterfinal and semifinal wins over Pendleton and The Dalles a day earlier.
Not all of Albert’s attacks were successful because Marist Catholic’s defense was the mirror of Valley Catholic’s with a strong block at the net and amazing saves in the back row. That led to a lot of long rallies throughout the night, rallies that eventually resulted in points for either team.
“We didn’t always win those long rallies,” Kemper noted.
But they did win them at key times.
And when the final set was close, Albert was the difference.
Valley Catholic was cruising with a 16-10 lead when the Spartans scored four straight points.
But Valley Catholic’s Emma Sarantakos had a kill to get the momentum back for the Valiants and then Albert added four kills and a stuff block as the Valiants scored seven more points in a row. The other two were aces by Velasco, one of which hit the top of the net and rolled over to Marist Catholic’s side of the court.
After Marist Catholic’s Lauren Rohman gave the Spartans one final point with a big kill, Albert ended it with another of her own, setting off a celebration for the Valiants.
Valley Catholic’s march toward the win Saturday started with its quick recovery from the loss in the first set.
“These girls have worked so hard on their mental game and handling pressure,” Kemper said. “They handled that really well.
“That was a new position for them. That was one of the worst sets we’ve played.”
She pointed out to the team after the set that a lot of Marist Catholic’s points came off mistakes by the Valiants, and they still managed to keep the score close. So she encouraged them to look at it as a new match, aiming to win three sets in a row.
Valley Catholic did just that.
“I think that really showed how connected we are as a team,” Albert said. “We pulled together as a team.”
And they used their mental toughness.
“It was our trust in our training, believing we can do it,” said Jaya McGregor, the Valiants star senior setter.
“We’ve worked so hard — our practices are so intense.”
Marist Catholic had used a combination of offense by Rohman, who splits time between stellar setter and stellar hitter depending on where she is in the rotation, fellow senior outside hitter Kimmy Spurlock and powerful middle blocker Maxine Holland-Bak to win the first set.
The second set was tied at 18 after a kill by Spurlock, but the Valiants finished the set strong to even the match, thriving in end-of-set situations that Kemper described as the “Red Zone,” similar to football.
A stuff block by Valley Catholic and two procedural errors by the Spartans — a player in the net and an illegal lift — gave the Valiants a three-point lead and Albert had two kills and Velasco an ace to end the set.
The end of the third set was even closer. An ace by McGregor and a hitting error had given the Valiants a 20-18 lead but Holland-Bak had a kill and Grace Bidwell a stuff block for the Spartans to even the score.
Sarantakos had a kill for the Valiants, but Bidwell responded with two and Rohman added another giving the Spartans a 23-21 lead.
But the Valiants were in the Red Zone.
Sara Tinker had a kill and the Spartans mishandled a return and the set was tied. The Valiants then had a stuff block on a hit by Rohman to end one of those long rallies and Albert smashed a bad Marist Catholic pass to the floor to end the set.
A short time later, the Valiants were celebrating after taking the final set.
Longtime Marist Catholic coach Shari Pimental said she was proud of her team after the match.
“We played hard,” she said. “It was a great match.
“Valley Catholic is a great team. We knew what we wanted to do. Sometimes we executed. Sometimes we didn’t.”
And though losing the final match is no fun, she made sure the players remembered they had made school history. It’s the fourth straight year Marist Catholic has played for the 4A title.
“Not many teams get to do that,” she said.
“I will be grateful for that,” said Rohman, who along with Spurlock and Marist Catholic’s other setter, Anna Edwards, were key players on all four squads (two won and two finished as runners-up).
Rohman said the Spartans played well. Valley Catholic was just a little better Saturday.
“I think we left it all on the floor,” she said. “We fought as hard as we could and we never gave up.
“I’m very proud.”
Meanwhile, Valley Catholic was celebrating a third straight title for the first time.
“We always believed in each other,” Albert said.
And while Albert provided the biggest hits, McGregor spread the offense around, getting Hadley Entizne, Allison Jacobs, Tinker and Sarantakos into the act for key kills as well.
“It’s great,” McGregor said. “I trust them all to put the ball away.”
Saturday night, that left Valley Catholic celebrating another title.
Saturday’s other trophy matches
Astoria beat The Dalles for third place in a five-set marathon, 13-25, 25-22, 25-22, 21-25, 15-10 as the two schools battled after losing in the semifinals Friday.
“It was a pretty amazing match,” said Astoria coach Eric Gohr, who was thrilled with his team’s finish after the Fishermen entered the playoffs as the No. 11 seed and had to win at Cascade just to get into the tournament.
The Dalles coach Teresa Morris gave credit to Astoria after the Riverhawks won the first set easily.
“They just did not give up on anything,” she said.
The Dalles finished in the top five for the third straight year — they were runners-up to Marist Catholic last fall — after a long trophy drought.
“I’m pretty proud about that part,” Morris said. “Our program is growing in a positive direction.”
In the fourth-place match, Cascade Christian beat Henley 23-25, 25-18, 29-27, 25-22 in a battle of Skyline League rivals.
It’s the third time the Challengers have beaten the Hornets this year, but they had to battle to do it.
“I am really proud of the way we competed tonight,” Henley coach Sierra Patzke said. “We threw some new things at our kids and they took it in stride and battled the whole match.”
Earlier in the day, Cascade Christian topped Pendleton 22-25, 25-19, 25-17, 25-22 and Henley beat Stayton 25-14, 25-14, 18-25, 25-22 in the consolation semifinals.
Tournament honors
Valley Catholic’s Albert and Marist Catholic’s Rohman were named Moda Players of the Game for the championship match.
The all-tournament first-team included unanimous selections McGregor and Kaya Gohr of Astoria along with Albert, Spurlock, Rohman and Henley’s Makayla Schroeder.
The second team included Sarantakos, Jazzy Morris-Holmes and Taylor Tuia of The Dalles, Pendleton’s MJ Gomez, Cascade Christian’s Hadley Wilcox and Henley’s Abby DuBose.
Cascade Christian received the sportsmanship trophy.
dorklefin2003@yahoo.com
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