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About The Observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1968-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 28, 2019)
8A — THE OBSERVER MONDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2019 SPORTS Badgers take OOL tourney title; Bobcats win BMC tourney By Ronald Bond The Observer The Powder Valley Badgers may be down one of their best players as they head into the state playoffs. That didn’t hinder them, however, from claiming the Old Oregon League tourna- ment title. The Badgers, the No. 1 team in the OSAA 1A rankings, swept Wallowa in the semifinals of the OOL tournament, 25-20, 25-20, 25-19, and topped Joseph in four sets in the champion- ship match, 25-19, 24-26, 25-18, 25-16. “It was a big adjustment after losing one of our strong players, but the girls came and (said), ‘We can read- just,’” head coach Marji Lind said of her Badgers, who are without junior middle blocker Belle Blair for the duration of the season after an ankle injury last week. Ronald Bond/The Observer “All the girls have stepped Keanna Bingham (2) and Autumn Davis reach up for a block during Powder Valley’s up two levels to come to- semifinal match against Wallowa Saturday. The Badgers won the OOL district title. gether.” The Badgers were able The Eagles, who had won to string big runs together 10 of 11 matches prior to throughout the season, and the championship match, did so again to finish the clinched the No. 2 seed from tournament, ending the final the OOL into the state play- match on an 8-3 run. Kills by offs, and will host Prairie Keanna Bingham and Trin- City in a first-round contest ity Nesser helped Powder Wednesday night. Valley push its lead to 21-13 “I’m very proud of all the in the fourth set against girls,” Joseph head coach Jill Joseph. Kills by Josi Krieger Hite said. “They continued to and Autumn Davis offset play each point against both a trio of kills by Joseph’s teams and were able to make Sabrina Albee and helped adjustments on the fly.” the Badgers reach match Joseph (16-13 overall) point, and Krieger sealed the reached the title match and match and tournament title earned a state playoff berth with another kill. by outlasting upstart Elgin “We’re a pretty versatile in the semifinals earlier Sat- team,” setter Brooke Allen urday, 25-22, 26-24, 25-17. said. “We were determined While the match ended as to come together and make a sweep, the Huskies had op- it happen, even without portunities to win each of the Belle, because we wanted it first two sets. Elgin led the so bad.” first set, 22-19, before Joseph Lind said serving was ended it on a 6-0 run. The vital for the Badgers in both Huskies rallied from behind their matches on Saturday. to pull even at 24-24 in the “The girls can really hit second set before Joseph spots when they need to (on grabbed the final two points. Ronald Bond/The Observer etty serves),” she said. “Commu- The Eagles pulled away in nication is great. We worked the third set. Shelby Sannar sets a ball for Elgin, which took fourth on our defense. Both those place at the OOL district tournament in La Grande. Wallowa (21-8) earned teams (Wallowa and Joseph) the third and final playoff ge 8A have great defense. They can berth from the OOL, and The Cougars never trailed Elgin head coach Tiana over the floor well. And the will travel to South Wasco in the final set against Cove, Murphey was pleased with girls worked hard at having County for a first-round and ended it on a 10-1 run. her team’s progress during a vision of the court.” match Wednesday night. An ace by Bailey Hafer and the season and effort in the Powder Valley heads into The Cougars rebounded a kill by Hailey Brockamp tournament. the playoffs as the most from their loss to Powder took Wallowa to match point, “They fought hard against dominant team in 1A with Valley and got by Elgin and the Cougars finished the Imbler and wanted to win a record of 31-1 and an 83-9 (11-14) in four sets in the win on a Cove error. more than anything. It was margin in sets won versus third-place match, 25-11, 23- On the day, Shanna Rae tough to lose to Joseph and sets lost. 25, 25-17, 25-22, to clinch the Tillery led with 36 kills. Wallowa but we’re proud of a After a first-round bye, final state playoff berth and Elgin, meanwhile, had fourth-place finish regardless.” The Badgers will host a end the Huskies’ season. grabbed an early two-set Tymra Anderson led Elgin second-round playoff game Both teams, however, lead against Imbler, watched on the day with 13 kills and Saturday, looking to return almost didn’t make it to the Panthers rally, then sur- give aces, and Gracie Evans to the state tournament after the semifinals, let alone the vived to win its own five-set had 44 digs. taking second a year ago. third-place match, as they thriller, 25-18, 25-19, 16-25, The loss by Imbler (11-14) Allen said the Badgers had to both survive what 20-25, 15-12. brought an end to its season still believe they can reach were arguably the top two The Huskies took the lead in heartbreaking fashion. their ultimate goal, even if contests of the day early for good in the final set, 10-8, “Tough way to end the they don’t have Blair for the Saturday in elimination on back-to-back Shelby San- season, but I am proud of postseason. matches. Wallowa rallied nar aces. Jayden Palmer had our team for fighting back to “Our goals haven’t from two sets down to defeat a key kill for a 13-11 lead, win sets three and four and changed. We’re still going for Cove in five sets, 17-25, 18- and Kaelin Evans finished force set five,” Imbler head the state title,” she said. 25, 25-16, 25-15, 15-4. the match with a kill. coach Jennifer Teeter said. Ronald Bond/The Observer Madelyn Nelson serves for Joseph, which took second place at the OOL district tournament in La Grande. Ronald Bond/The Observer Shanna Rae Tillery attempts a kill for Wallowa, which fin- ished third at the OOL district tournament in La Grande. “We are looking forward to next year, and hope to build on this seasons growth and improvement.” Aspen Smith had 18 kills and 11 digs for Imbler. Anika McDonald had 30 digs and Rylee Deal had 40 assists and 12 digs. Cove (13-9) also sees its season come to an end. “(Our) seniors Austin Ken- dall, Ellianna Hines-Dunlap, Riley Overton and Breanna Harvey all stepped up and worked hard and performed well in a well-fought match,” Cove head coach Brett Moore said. “They played well and will be missed.” BOBCATS FINISH PERFECT BMC SEASON The Union Bobcats put an emphatic stamp on their TIGERS Continued from Page 7A after alla , now Ben Lonergan/EO Media Group ad of La Grande defensive back Blaine Shaw (3) intercepts a pass intended for Baker tight end Spencer Smith (32). The La Grande Tigers defeated the Baker Bulldogs 34-0 at Eastern Oregon University in La Grande Saturday afternoon. weren’t flowing as well to the ball, and we kept getting better and better.” The outburst of offense capped a half in which neither team was able to do much. La Grande had just 98 yards of offense — 88 of it on the ground, and 82 of that from Reed. Baker struggled even more, gaining just 88 yards, and getting 60 of that through the air. “The defense really stepped up today, and we showed it on the scoreboard putting up the zero,” Shaw said. La Grande’s rushing attack finally took off in the second half — particularly in the fourth quarter — to put the game on ice. Reed and Robinson scored on runs of 5 and 25 yards, respectively, five minutes apart for the final margin. Robinson had 97 of his 98 yards rushing after the break, which offset an afternoon that saw him throw for just 37 yards on four completions. As a team, La Grande rushed for 242 yards. Baker never did get its offense going in the second half, finishing with just 139 total yards. “Our defense (has) been working really perfect Blue Mountain Conference season, sweeping Stanfield for the third time in the championship match Saturday night in Union, 25-14, 25-7, 25-21. The win capped a domi- nant league slate for Union, which won all 12 regular- season BMC matches and the championship match. Union wasn’t often tested in BMC play, sweeping nine of its 13 opponents and only getting pushed to the fifth set in a match twice. Union will host a state playoff game next Saturday against an opponent yet to be determined. The Bobcats will learn who their oppo- nent is Tuesday night when the OSAA 2A rankings freeze. hard, not just the last week but the last two weeks,” McIlmoil said. “There are a couple things that coach Walcott wanted to tighten up, and he’s been doing a phenomenal job all year. There are a few changes that he made, and those changes paid off.” Spencer Shirtcliff had 102 of those yards through the air for Baker. However, the quarterback was just 8-for-23 passing and was picked off twice. The Tigers also held running back Gauge Bloomer in check, as he rushed the ball 19 times for just 38 yards. Riley Flanagan had three catches for 58 yards. “Offensively we just couldn’t get anything going,” Baker head coach Jason Ramos said. “We struggled. We had opportunities, but we made too many mistakes, costly penalties, interceptions, turnovers.” The Tigers (8-0 overall, 4-0 GOL) await the completion of next weekend’s state play-in games to see who they play first. The Tigers finished No. 3 in the OSAA rankings, mean- ing they achieved another one of their goals — the ability to host two playoff games if they win in the first round. “We wanted two home playoff games,” Reed said. “We wanted to do the best we could do to get that, and that’s what we did.”
