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About Sandy post. (Sandy, Oregon) 1938-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 13, 1980)
Section SANDY, ORÉGON THURSDAY, NOV. 13, 1980 The Srfnäy Post Sports and Recreation Pioneers overcome Estacada for state net berth by M ARK FLO Y D The road to the state playoffs was a rocky one for Sandy and the Pioneers w ill face an even harder task in the days to come. But for the fourth straight year, the Sandy High girls volleyball team w ill be going to state. The Pioneers outlasted Estacada in a p la y o ff at C anby.H igh, S a tu rd a y, winning 9-15, 15-6, 154 to claim the Tim ber Valley le a g ue ’s second playoff berth. Sweet Home won the league title with a 13-1 record, including a late season win over Sandy. Now the Pioneers face the unenviable task of playing Beaverton on the road in the firs t round of the state playoffs. The match against the state's second- ranked team w ill be Saturday at 7 p.m. at Beaverton High School The winner of that match w ill go on to le w is and Clark for the eight-team tournament to decide the state champion. Should Sandy be fortunate enough to get by Beaverton, its second round opponent would be undefeated Cor vallis, defending state champs and ranked No. 1 again this season. To take it a step further, should the Pioneers win that one too, they would have to play No. 3 Barlow in the semifinals, and the Bruins swept through the Wilco league without a loss. And finally, should Sandy get that far, it would face No. 4 St. M a ry’s in the finals, if there are no upsets in the upper bracket. ‘ We probably have the toughest situation of any team, but we are capable of playing with anybody,” Sandy coach Ron Grantz said. “ I t ’s tough to be confident going in, but we have reason not to duck under for anyone. We’ve played all those teams tough this season.” ‘ The difference is, the other teams have done better because they’ve been m ore co n siste n t,” G rantz added. “ We’ve played as well as a ll of them at times, but we’ve lacked any kind of consistency.” Consistency is one thing the Pioneers are going to need at state because there w ill be no m argin for error against such quality opponents. The Pioneers w ill have to beat the state’s top three teams, barring upsets, just to get into the CLASS AAA FIRST ROUND St. M ary's at Washington-Monroe, Tuesday, 7 p.m. U Grande at Clackamas, Tuesday, 7 p.m. Marshfield at Grants Pass. Tuesday, 7 p.m. Cleveland at lakeridge, Tuesday, 7 p.m. SECOND ROUND Washington-Monroe or St. M ary's at I eke Oswego, Saturday, tim eT B A . Iebanon at Sweet Home, Saturday, finals. But, as Grantz said, they can play with any of them. Sandy split its two games with Beaverton at the Sandy tournament this year, but got crushed in straight games by the Beavers at the Barlow tourney. The Pioneers were forced to play without setter Colene McDonald, however. The Pioneers also played Corvallis at Barlow and lost just 15-12, 15-13, then played the Spartans at a jamboree in Clackamas and took them to overtim e 7:30 p.m. Clackamas or leVgrande at M a r shall, Saturday, 2 p.m. Medford at Thurston, Saturday, 1 p.m. Grants Pass or Marshfield at Cor vallis, Saturday, 1p.m. Sandy at Beaverton, Saturday time TBA I ¿ikeridge or Cleveland at Barlow, Saturday, time TBA. Jackson at Mountain View, Satur day, time TBA. before losing 16-14. As Grantz noted, they can play with anyone. It didn’t look that way in the first game against Estacada Saturday. The Rangers earned a match against Sandy by upsetting Oregon City in the opener 15-5,8-15,16-14. Oregon City led 14-11 in the final game and had several chances to put away the pesky Rangers, but succumbed to their own errors. Against Sandy, Estacada overcame a 7-1 deficit in the first game and toppled the Pioneers 15-9. “ We were up 7-1, then they outscored us 14-2 to win it,'' Grantz said. “ We started out hot, then lost it. Everyone was standing around and the ball was dropping in. Neither team played well the whole match — we played a little better and won it.” The Pioneers came back behind the hitting of Cherie E llio tt and Dawn New to take the second game 15-5, a game which seemed to last the whole night. There were so many sideouts, that both teams used up their three allotted substitutions and some people were forced to play all the way around in the rotation. And all those substitutions were used up by the time the score was ;>-3 for Sandy. But McDonald began finding the range on her sets and E llio tt started to hit. Then Estacada helped out by making some serving errors and the Pioneers broke open a close game. The Rangers also had troubles passing and the ball began d riftin g over the net, a dangerous habit with the 5-foot-ll New in the middle for Sandy. Three times in the game New reached up and slam med the errant passes to the floor and the Pioneers had the game. They built up a 10-1 lead in the final game behind the hitting of E llio tt and New and some nice blocks by New. Then Sandy lost it and the parade of sideouts began. Luckily, Estacada was also making errors and the teams swapped points until Sandy had its 15. Grantz was a bit disturbed by the fact that he got some shaky play by a couple of his regulars, but was generally pleased with Peggy Gillies and Linda Mosbrucker off the bench. Stephanie Hagstrom also had a few troubles with her m obility after sustaining a badly bruised knee in practice last week. “ We really weren't that sharp,” G ra n tz a d m itte d . “ The B eaverton coach was there and I ’m sure she left feeling pretty good. Beaverton is a good fundamental team and they have a couple good hitters. We’ll have to play well to w in.” “ We’re going to have to pass the ball well and scramble on the floor, not stand around,” Grantz added. “ And we need to hit the ball like we’re capable of doing. We’ve got the ability to do it, now we just got to decide to do it.” Sandy girls ready this time for state cross country meet by M AR K FLO YD Running together has been a trademark for the Sandy girls this season and Ie u ra Stringham (le ft> and Renee Hess use each other to find the early pace in meets. A fter many hours of preparation and several hundred miles of running, the whole season w ill boil down to 11 short minutes fo r the Sandy High girls cross country team. Eleven minutes is just about how much tim e it w ill take to negotiate the 3,000 meter course this Saturday at la n e Community College in Eugene. The Pioneers are ready. In fact, they’ve never been more ready for a big race, according to coach John White. “ I ’ve looked at the last four or five seasons, and we’ve run more miles this year than ever before,” White said. “ And we’re in better shape mentally because of the way we've trained. The thought of a long run now doesn’t seem to bother the girls like it did last year.” The Sandy girls would probably just as soon forget last year. True, the Pioneers did capture the district crown for the first tim e in the school’s history, and they did finish higher (12th, than any Sandy team ever had at state. But they didn’t live up to their own ex pectations. “ We just didn’t run well down there,” White said of last year’s race. “ We peaked for d istrict and just didn’t do anything at state. I plugged our times in from d istrict last year, the courses were comparable, and we could have finished as high as seventh.” The Pioneers are using a slightly different strategy this year. Sandy gambled somewhat by training through the d istrict meet and concentrating on peaking at state. The speedwork and intervals usually take five weeks, according to White's calendar, and d istrict was right in the middle of that stretch. It didn’t faze the Pioneers too much as they still romped to the d istrict title. This year White started the speed- work five weeks before state was scheduled. le s t season, Sandy ran its best race five weeks after it began the interval work and went downhill from there. So the Pioneers should be peaked for state. ‘‘I f our top five girls run super, and everyone is healthy, we have a shot at finishing in the top six,” White said. “ But everyone would have to run fast and we’d probably have to put our firs t five in the top 50 runners.” “ That would really mean running w ell,” he added. “ I-ast year our second Gayle Roth runner was 70th, but if you look at the times you can see the difference.” Gayle Roth finished 36th fo r Sandy in 11:34.5 last year. Ie u ra Stringham was second, placing 70th in 11:57.9. le s t week at district, Roth ran 11:09 and should be well under 11 minutes with the extra training. Stringham is a half minute ahead of last year. In addition, Donna Nelson should finish light years ahead of last year where she nursed a knee in ju ry and placed 117th. White hopes those three w ill take after Alice Hunger of Oregon City and Kathy Nichols of West lin n , who finished one-two at the Tim ber Valley league d istrict meet. He plans to send Renee Hess, Darby Binder and Sharon Jensen after Tricia Sliger of Oregon City, who was fourth. “ We’ll probably key on Hunger,” White admitted. “ She’ll go out hard, but with our additional speedwork, we should be able to keep right with her.” Just where that w ill be may be the key to Sandy’s success. There are at least five good teams and a dozen or so tough individuals at state this year. Aloha looks to be the overwhelming favorite for the team title , but Lincoln, Ashland, Crook County and Newberg w ill have a say in it. Individually, defending champ Kathy Hayes of Newberg w ill be among the favorites, but she w ill be challenged by a strong field of runners including Ellen Schlotter of Medford, Karen Jensen of Lincoln, Melinda Brown of Hillsboro, Pam Vasey of Glencoe, M elanie Woodworth of Cottage Grove, K im Roth of Sprague, Claudette Groenendaal of North Salem, T ik i Morrow of Bend, and possibly, Nichols and Hunger. But many of those runners are competing as individuals and their places w ill be thrown out in the team scoring. “ The g irls want to bring home a trophy, which means we’d have to be in the top three,” White noted. ‘ ‘I ’d be very, very happy w ith that. I ’d be pleased if we were in the top six. We should be in the top 10 — if we aren’t, something went wrong.” Finishing in the top six, or the tope three, isn’t out of the question. But the Pioneers are going to have to run ex trem ely well. Not just one or two of them, but the whole team. The Pioneers have set a goal of each runner clipping 20 seconds off her time recorded at district. In some cases they w ill need more. Health may be a m ajor factor. Nelson has been plagued with swollen tonsils and Jensen has been fighting a bad cold for more than a week. She has missed several workouts. At this time of the year, every workout is vita l and every different colored jersey that passes a Sandy runner, Saturday, could be the one that moves them down a notch. The girls race is scheduled to begin at 11:30 a m. at Ie n e Community College in Eugene. The college is located some four miles south of Eugene off Inter state 5. The Pioneers w ill make the long trip down to Eugene, Friday night, but the tim e that counts, those crucial 11 minutes, won’t come until Saturday morning. “We've got to go out quick,” White said. “ But the most important part of the race is the middle portion. “ At the end, there w ill be 5,000 people ringing the track. I t ’s just incredible. No one quits that last 600 meters, not with 5,000 people staring at you. The whole season is right there. “ I told the girls to be where they want to lie halfway through the race,” he added. “ That’s what we’ve done all year. Work hard to get that position halfway through, then maintain it the rest of the way in.” “ I t ’s in the middle, where everyone is hurting, that you have to work hard.” State tournament history The Race: The girls Class AAA State Cross Country Championship The Place: Iene Community College in Eugene The Tim e. Nov. 15at 11:30a.m. The Top Teams: Aloha, Lincoln, Newberg, Ashland, Crook County The Top Individuals: Kim Roth, Sprague; Claudette Groenendaal, North Salem; Tiki Morrow, Bend; Kathy Hayes, Newberg; Ellen Schlotter, Medford; Kathy Nichols, West Linn; Karen Jensen, Lincoln; Melinda Brown, Hillsboro; Pam Vasey, Glencoe; Melanie Woodworth, Cottage Grove. The Runners: Gayle Roth, junior, Donna Nelson, sophomore, I a u ra Stringham, sophomore, Renee Hess, senior, Sharon Jensen, freshman, Darby Binder, junior; Kelly Douglas, aophormoe; Kim Pearson, sophomore Tap Previous Sand> Finish : 12th in 1979, 19th in 1978 Top Previous Sandy Individual: Gayle Roth, 36th in 1979 — 11:34.5 le s t Year's Sandy Results: Gayle Roth 36th, 11:34.5; Laura Stringham, 70th, 11:57.9; Cindy Kudisill, 86th, 12:09.4; Renee Hess. 94th, 12:12.6, Donna Nelson, 117th, 12.29 9; Darby Binder, 118th, 12:30.9; Teresa Caba, 134th, 12:51.6. la s t Year's Team Results: 1) Hillsboro, 106; 2) Sunset, 111; 3) lin c o ln , 130; 4) South Salem, 114; 5) Sprague, 150, 6) Crook County, 159; 7) South Eugene. 214; 8) Churchill, 247; 9) Wilson, 264; 10) Newberg, 287 la s t Year's Individual Results: 1) Kathy Hayes, Newberg, 10:23.5; 2) Alice Munz, South Eugene, 10.33.6; 3) K e rry Martinson, Sunset, 10 39.6; 4) Pam Vaaey, Hillsboro, 10 43.0; 5) T iki Morrow, Bend, 10:43.3; 6) la w Johnson. 10:43.6; 7) Claudette Groenendaal, North Salem, 10:49.6; 6 ) Kim Roth, Sprague, 10:58 2; 9) Brenda Bushnell, Churchill, 10:54 1; 10) Carol Prouet, North Eugene. 10:57 0. I Two of Sandy's supersophs, IK »on a Nelson i right) and Laura Stringham take aim on the front of the pack at the recent Tim ber Valley league district meet. Roth have won races for the Pioneers this year and are keys for Sandy at the state meet. photos by Mark Floyd
