Cowgirls go undefeated at Mountain View Tournament - Central Oregonian

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Lon Austin

Central Oregonian

The Cowgirls may be young, but they are loaded with talent.

Saturday, the Cowgirls won the Mountain View Invitational Volleyball Tournament to remain undefeated on the season.

“It’s just so exciting,” said head coach Rosie Honl. “Our first two goals were to take the Summit Jamboree and to go undefeated here — so we are two-for-two on our goals.”

The Cowgirls started the day with a 25-9, 25-11 whipping of the Redmond Panthers. Then, the team rolled past Marist 25-12, 25-16 and Silverton 25-1, 25-12 to easily win their pool.

With no other teams going undefeated in Pool play the Cowgirls entered the afternoon’s bracket play with the number one seed.

CCHS players celebrate a key point against Ridgeview. The Cowgirls went on to win close matches against the Ridgeview Ravens and the Bend Lava Bears to win the tournament.

undefeated record earned Crook County a bye in the tournament quarterfinals. After a more than three hour wait, the Cowgirls struggled early in their semifinal match against the Ridgeview Ravens.

Ridgeview scored the first point of the match, and still led 8-7 midway through the first set. The Cowgirls scored the next three points of the set to take a 10-8 lead. However, a stubborn Ridgeview team continued to make things difficult for the Cowgirls. Crook County led just 21-19 late in the set before scoring four of the last five points to win 25-20. In set two the Cowgirls ran out to a 23-12 lead before the Ravens rallied to make the match close at the end. The Cowgirls finally won the match 25-18 on a Hannah Troutman ace.

The championship match with the Bend Lava Bears was just as close. The two teams played evenly throughout the first set, with the Lava Bears finally taking a 22-21 lead. After a Crook County timeout Troutman had three consecutive kills, before Karlee Hollis closed out the set with an ace giving the Cowgirls a 25-22 win. Game two of the match was nearly as close. The two teams were tied 16-16 before Crook County took the lead for good. Annie Fraser finally closed out the match with a kill, giving the Cowgirls a 25-20 win.

“I was so thrilled,” Fraser said. “We played really hard and we looked like Crook County volleyball. That’s what counts.”

Honl was pleased with the poise that the Cowgirls showed during bracket play.

“Bend has a bunch of good players,” she said. “They are solid and they really do a good job. And Ridgeview is running the same stuff as us. Those kids have been playing for a long time and even though they don’t have any seniors they’ve got some good ballhandlers and they’ve got some size.”

Crook County finished the day with 114 kills. Makayla Lindburg led the way with 32 kills, while Troutman finished with 27, and Hollis added 25. Fraser also had a solid day finishing with 18 kills.

Although the offense was solid all day it was at the service line that the team did much of its damage. The team finished with 37 aces while successfully hitting 89 percent of their serves (228-257).

Lindburg led the team in digs with 33, while Troutman was close behind with 32. Kayla Hamilton also had a solid tournament, finishing with 108 of the team’s 117 assists.

“That was amazing,” Honl told her team following the tournament. “You guys are just growing so much everyday. Today was a great day. We worked as a team and we met our goals.”

The Cowgirls have now won all 14 sets that they have played this season, and are a perfect 2-0 in match play.

The team is back in action on Tuesday when they travel to Sisters to take on both Sisters and Madras in non-league play. JV?play begins at 4 p.m. with varsity action set to begin at 6:30 p.m.

“Those will be two big matches,” honl said. “They will really be tough.”