Canby Herald Online

Taking the fifth: tournament recap

No. 9 Canby takes home second state trophy in school history Saturday

• By: Alex Tam  
• Published: 11/18/2009 2:44:49 AM

Photo By: Alex TamVolleyball: Canby 3, Barlow 0
Canby High School juniors Taylor Preuitt (left) and Tineke Bierma (right) go up for the block on Barlow junior Brianna Leenders during the Cougars’ three-game sweep on Friday morning at the Class 6A state tournament.

HILLSBORO — Canby coach Bryan Kamahoahoa admitted he had some doubts.

Even some of the players had their own doubts.

In an up-and-down season filled with peaks and valleys, the Canby volleyball team saw itself playing its best volleyball at the right time.

The No. 9 Cougars surprised many by reaching the state semifinals and took home fifth place on Saturday at the OSAA Class 6A state tournament at Liberty High School.

Canby fell to No. 7 Sunset in five games, 18-25, 25-22, 25-18, 20-25, 15-8, in the third-fifth place match.

“It feels good, I mean a lot of people didn’t think we would make it this far,” senior outside hitter Nicole Schwend said. “I mean, I know at times even I was second-guessing whether we would or not but we finally made it and all came together

“We’re pretty happy with it. You can’t argue with taking home a trophy.”

Trophies were given to the top six teams, and this year marked the second straight season that Canby took one home after coming off a fourth-place finish in the 2008 campaign.

“The whole season has been such a roller coaster with ups and downs,” Schwend said. “We’ve had so many games and glimpses in games where we’ve been the good team I know we’ve always been, but there’s always so many downfalls so I didn’t know if we’d show up to play or not.”

It was just a little more than a month ago when Sunset dominated Canby in three games in a non-league match.

But the Cougars came out from the get-go, sending the Apollos on their heels by leading by as many as seven points on three different occasions en route to the first-game win.

However, the Apollos adjusted and took control by continually tipping balls over the net successfully into the middle of Canby’s defense.

“That’s been our problem the whole season,” Schwend said.

In the fourth, the Cougars rallied behind the net play of senior Katrina Zens and junior Tineke Bierma, who combined for 11 kills in the game. Canby scored nine of the final 11 points to tie the match 2-2.

In the fifth, Canby staked itself a 3-2 lead early on; however, it was the lone lead it had for the game.
After pulling within 7-6 behind kills by Zens and freshman Emilie Wilmes, Sunset pulled away by going on an 8-2 run to win the match.

“It was real intense because every point — whether it was good or bad — it made a difference,” said Zens, who had 14 kills.

Junior Taylor Preuitt had eight kills and Schwend added six.

While sadness ensued over losing their final match of the season, the players admitted it went away after getting handed their trophy.

“I’m happy,” senior setter Ashley Bugni said. “It didn’t end the way I planned after we won our first match (in the quarterfinals) but things happen. Even though we lost to (Sunset) both times, we could’ve beaten them. It was just a matter of playing as hard as we can throughout the whole match, which we had a hard time doing this whole season.”

In the semifinals, Canby fell to No. 2 Jesuit in three games, 25-14, 25-16, 25-14.

In the quarterfinals, the Cougars pulled off the upset over No. 5 Barlow in a surprising sweep, 26-24, 25-20, 25-22.

Canby faced four match points in the first game, but rallied to take the final six points, which demoralized the Bruins.

“That’s a coach’s nightmare for Barlow, but for us, it’s a dream come true,” Kamahoahoa said. “When you come back like that and take a game from them and actually steal a game like that, it hurts a lot. After that, we kept them off balance. We have a big block and we have some big hitters so it’s pretty tough to defend against that.”

The semifinal appearance was the farthest any Canby team had gone before in school history.

“All three years I’ve been on varsity, we’ve made it to state so that’s a pretty big accomplishment,” Schwend said. “And I’m glad to be a part of that.”

Notes: Zens and junior Kasey Jo Schlatter were named to the U.S. Bank/Les Schwab Class 6A All-Tournament second team. … Top-ranked Central Catholic defeated Jesuit in the state-title match, 25-20, 20-25, 25-22, 25-22. … Sheldon defeated Gresham in the fourth-sixth place match, 25-18, 25-16, 25-27, 25-23. … McNary and Barlow were also participants in the tournament.

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